CHAPTER 214 IMPRESSIONS OF MY LIFE: AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A RECHERCHE POET.LIVING ANOTHER YEAR AFTER DEATH SENTENCE 2017

 CHAPTER 214. LIVING ANOTHER YEAR AFTER THE DEATH SENTENCE 2017 

 The news had become official on December 1, 2016, but as noted in the last Chapter life went on and I went with it. For how long I didn’t know. Everything I read said most people died with in one or two years of ALS being diagnosed. O tell the truth I didn’t feel much different than I had in 2016. I still walked with my funny gait and no speed, bu otherwise I didn’t feel too bad. I certainly didn’t feel about to topple over dead.  

The New Years brought us a snow storm. I bundled up and hobbled on
out, going to Rockwood Park. The sign says, “No Swimming”. Are you crazy. It was  freezing out. 

Lois and I got a visit from Jasper, our grandson. Darryl had brought him up. This was one of the first really big snows he had seen and he loved it. He had recently gotten ga-ga over Thomas the Tank Train, who is on his hat. Everything he was getting now seemed to have Thomas chugging along. 

Though I didn’t feel I needed it, that other Thomas, Thomas Jefferson Hospital insisted in have a ventilator called a Phillips Trilogy, sent to me. I was actually like a CPAP machine.A mask, a hose and an adjustable box with filters, a 

big  plastic one where the hose attached and a little on, like a felt sponge that you pressed into the back.  I was supposed to sleep with this on every night. I know it looks uncomfortable, but it wasn’t. I could sleep fine with it on, however, this first one made a whirling sound and I feared it was disturbing Lois. She was having a hard time sleeping as it was.  Therefore I  seldom used it.

I didn’t really notice a difference anyway. It was suppose to strengthen my lungs and make me left fatigued. I felt about as fatigued with it as without it. 

Another thing I received from the hospital were some eating utensils that were to help my weakened hands grasps the tools for feeding myself.  These all had rubber sheaves on the handles.  These were something else that seemed silly to me. I could use regular forks and spoons and knives. These seemed bulky and awkward. I was having much trouble using dinnerware, except for cutting. It was becoming more difficult for me to slice food, especially meat and cheese. Eventually I would have to have someone else do this for me, but not yet. 

It was about now that I spit in a tube and mailed it to Ancestry to have my DNA tested. I did not look like this woman when the result came back.  I was hoping to find something unusual in the family tree, but not at all. My DNA followed the early trip, down though Scandinavia, mainly Finland, through Western Europe into toe British Isles. I was mostly Scotch and Welsh, with some Irish stopped into the pot. I  was so white I was almost invisible. 

Lois and I saw a lot of Jasper in 2017, then in July I got  a second grandson, Malone, named after the singer.

 

I was becoming fascinated by the way my hands were sinking. It was like watching a living Xray the flesh had shrunk so.

I wondered if I would become one of the Skeleton Exhibits at the freak shows.

  

We went to the Chadds Forge Tavern for Laurels birthday.  It was hard to believe but she turned 39 on March 1. Her sister,  Noelle, pictured at dinner was would be 37 in  December.

 

I was now do my walks regularly and I had a full gray beard. Ronald decided I looked like the actor,  Donald Sutherland.  I didn’t quite see it myself.

I was mistaken one day for my one of my boyhood idols, Richie Ashburn, center fielder for the Philadelphia Phillies.  I’m in my car in the inspection line and see this one

inspector doing a double take and getting all excited. He really thought I was ashburn. 

I met a lot of interesting people on my walks still.This one was very interesting. She walked her dog there regular, but what got my attention was her dog only had three legs. It got around just as well as dogs with four. A  true inspiration.

Was still doing a lot of. My own lawn work, but I was getting some help from my oldest daughter, Laurel. 

And now came a mystery. I was doing my all at

Rockwood and starting p the back path I spotted a package underneath a stone bench. What is this? I went and looked closer. It was in a clear plastic bag  and appeared to be a couple of pill vials.

I hobbled on the path up the hill, cut through side trail back to the highest point in the park where there is a gazebo. In the center under its bench was another package. I stepped in and examined this even closer and indeed it had two ill bottle vials inside it.  

What is going on.

I came down another path and near the stable house on a
green patch I a thick few trees. I went inside these trees and there under another stone  bench was two such packages of pill vials.

I’m getting suspicious now. Is this some form of drug distribution?  I begun looking. There is a package against the door of the gatekeeper’s house. There is one in the hollow of a tree.

 

They seem to be everyday.  I decide I should report this. I go to the office if the Park Supervisor in the  mansion.

He doesn’t know what they are. 

He was a very nice man, by the way. He once took me on a tour of the carriage house. It was interesting, but very cold. They had the air conditioner blasting.  

In case you didn’t take note, I wore a minimum of clothes in the summer. A T-shirt and very short shorts, and that was about all. I was very cold on that little tour.

The Supervisor reported these packages to the New Castle County Police. Who investigated. It turned out some group was doing a scavenger hunt in the park and this was a test run. The Park Supervisor was a bit upset that no one informed the park of this event, but there was no crime in the making.  I was thanked for repairing the packages. 

Again for my birthday, Ronald treated us to olde time pictures at Yesterdays. This time our Canadian friend, Pat Flynn wa
s along. We were back to be cowboys.

In December Lois had a reaction to her blood pressure medicine and her face  swelled up. We kidded her about her Angelo Jolie lips, but it was fairly serious. The doctor put her on a new medication and her face returned to normal.

I had my own breakout this year when I couldn't get my Methadexate for  prolonged period Although I take this for arthritis, it also controls my psoriasis. Missing it mean I broke out with a bad case, a dangerous case.

We had a great Christmas Day. Even the grand kids were here to see us. There is my son with his partner,   Jackie and their two boys, Jasper and Malone.

Noelle and Laurel prepared dinner. 

Then they got to relax and open presents. 

Lois also got some relaxing time and received her annual nutcracker. Also her face was no longer swollen. 

Everyone had a merry time.