May 24, 2020: Our 40th Wedding Anniversary All things considered, the virtual Zoom celebration worked pretty well. Actually seeing our friends and family was very cheering. We had an impressive amount of "geographic participation" from both our families. From our original Wedding Party: my sister Shelagh McCarron & her partner Tess Contos ( Syracuse, NY ) and Mark's brother, Don & his wife Lynda Deprez ( Paxton, MA ). Kathy Johnson (our wedding vocalist!) joined us & sang from Akron, OH. Don's kids: Julie Deprez Stevenson & her husband Kevin & son David ( Morrisville, VT ) and her older brother, Jim Deprez (Mark's nephew) from Columbus, OH. ( Jim was 2 weeks old when we got married & Lynda left him in Henrietta with his Grandma Clare Marcoux while they were at the wedding.) M y high school friends joined us: Sharon Ternullo Middleton ( Findlay, OH ), Mary ...
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May 23, 2020 Today my sister Shelagh & her partner, Tess Contos, came for an afternoon visit. This is our first face-to-face contact since Christmas! We used face masks (inside) and the weather was (finally) lovely, so we spent most of our time outside in the Pergola or playing with Kate's boys, Erik & Jack, on the lawns at Rafter Hall. Shelagh, who is the director of Respiratory Services at St. Camillus Nursing Home in Syracuse, is tested for COVID-19 twice a week now. She has consistently tested negative as recently as last Thursday, so we hope exposure to her & Tess is safe. It was a nice visit, but a bit tiring, as usual, for me who does the bulk of the prep, serving and clean up. Shelagh & Tess both needed a change of pace. Irene Contos is living "downstairs" with them now, since her brief but dramatic hospitalization for a bleeding ulcer early in the COVID-19 crisis. Tess has been carrying most of the loa...
May 22, 2020 In 2 days it will be our 40th Anniversary! I am feeling sorry for myself because we can't have a group celebration. The NYS Health Dept. is still recommending "sheltering-in-place" and "Phase 1" limited opening of some businesses, with no large group contacts. This means no party, here or at a venue like the Conesus Country Club , no Mass (like we had for our 30th @ St. Mary's), and no exotic vacation, like a cruise or a foreign destination! I admit, my kids, as wonderful as they are, could/would not have pulled together any kind of celebration for us, even without a pandemic. Months before my parents' 40th, my sister & I arranged a Mass & reception for them in Buffalo, with my cousin, the priest, officiating & a renewal of vows. I admit, I wanted at least a little of that. Not my husband, Mark's "thing", but he would have gone along with it if he only...
May 20, 2020 In the midst of the pandemic news, today our isolated household dealt with the euthanasia of our dear 16 year old calico cat, Sophie. We knew her renal failure was worsening. Her appetite disappeared and she stopped eating almost a week ago. Even though she was still hunting until a week ago, now, her walking up the hill from the pond appeared painful and she had been sleeping even more than her "normal" 16 hours/day. Although she continued to tolerate her subcutaneous hydration treatments stoically, she had lost so much weight it was hard to "pinch up" enough skin under which to inject the needles. Her vocalizations began to sound like she was in pain as well. Yesterday, I found her up against the Pergola wall, sleeping in the weak sunshine, occasionally watching the pond below. I think she had been there for hours, too weak to walk up to the house. I slipped a small saucer of water under her chin and she quietly lapped at the water for...
May 16, 2020 Kate was discharged today without having her gall bladder out, yet. Things are still too inflamed and irritated to have surgery. Apparently (& according to the MRI she got on Wed.) she has gall stones. None are currently in her bile duct, but her pancreas looks "consistent with pancreatitis". We all learned that those pesky gall stones can block the shared duct from the pancreas too and its digestive juices can back up and start digesting itself! Hence the inflammation of the pancreas. Left untreated the pancreatic tissue is destroyed. Hence the recommendation to remove her gall bladder as soon as the inflammation has subsided.
March 17, 2020 My RRTA Book Club mtg. for today had been canceled last week as well. So, my only appointment in Rochester today was a pedicure. I had purchased a bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream for the pedicurist's "tip" and that was the last of those appointments too! I dropped off a couple of framing jobs at the Frame Shop in Henrietta, just before they closed as a "non-essential business." As your grandpa's job at the American Hotel in Lima, was canceled due to COVID-19, your grandpa & I had invited 2 friends for dinner instead, John Kerr & Colleen Liggett. It was the quietest St. Patrick's Day I ever had in my life, and the first March 17th in more than 40 years your grandpa had NOT played his mandolin with his band, some where. We invited John Kerr & his wife Colleen Liggett here for a dinner of Irish Stew and mandolin (Mark & John) and violin (Colleen ...
March 16, 2020 You boys were home today, as HCSD did shut down over the weekend. I drove to your home in Honeoye that morning, almost giddy in anticipation of helping your mom with your "home schooling." Instead, there were errands to run. Your mom took you, Erik, with her to deliver Easter candy orders (I think) and I took you, Jack, with me to: 1. collect more signatures on a ballot petition for Nate McMurray, who was running for NY27 Congress, 2. drop off those completed petitions at the McMurray "headquarters" in Geneseo, 3. pick up Ringers solution and needles for our cat Sophie at our vet Gene Scherline, in Geneseo, and 4. shop at Wegman's in Geneseo. It was a busy morning and you, Jack, were very good. We chatted in the car and you were super cooperative, such as holding my hand, or letting me "sanitize" your hands when required. After we got back to your house in Honeoye, your mom didn't need any more help, so I left. ...
March 14, 2020 Despite growing concerns about school closures (Honeoye was not closed yet) St. Mary's in Honeoye, continued with our Annual St. Patrick's Day Dinner & if we were missing people, we didn't notice. Your grandpa Mark & I went to it & sat with the family of Jan Boyea, including their little grand daughters, who go to school with you, Erik & Jack. We went to Mass the next day too, not realizing that would be the last "in person" service we would attend for many, many months.
March 12, 2020 My Livingston Senior GLEE CLUB mtg., scheduled for today (Thurs.) was cancelled on Monday. I spent a chunk of time on Tues. emailing and calling our community members that our host agency, the LCCNR (Livingston County Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation) has been closed to all visitors, on the recommendation of the county DOH (Dept. Of Health). I should have used the "free" morning to practice my violin, as I had a scheduled lesson later that afternoon, as well as Buddy practice w/fellow Kanack Grandma, Joy Irwin, who plays the viola. But I don't think I did. What I remember most from that day was a conversation with Alice Kanack herself, who appeared to be really sick, with something "upper respiratory". There was already "talk" about COVID-19, and she related how her doctor had already told her (2x) she "couldn't be tested for that". Ultimately, she was diagnosed with pneumonia and canceled her classes for two weeks...
March 11, 2020 This is the date many Americans first became aware of the looming pandemic that would affect just about everybody on the planet somehow for the next few months (and maybe years , as you will be reading this with considerable hindsight.) My calendar for that day looked uneventful: my grandson Jack was scheduled to go w/his mother, my daughter, Kate Deprez Ransom, to Happiness House in Canandaigua, NY for a speech evaluation that morning and Kate asked me to sit with her boys that afternoon when she went to work, having "flipped" her morning work hours to that afternoon. Kate had started what seemed like an ideal part time job in the village, a mere 2 miles or less from their home. She was now working as the Town of Richmond's Assessor Clerk and Web Mistress. Sixteen hours a week, built around her two sons's school schedule, seemingly perfect to provide her with both income and mental stimulation AND b...