Thankful my prediction didn't come true

Happy to hold Nell

My sister just reminded me of the day a dozen years ago when I had had my Dana-Farber intake appointment and I was standing outside the Cheesecake Factory where she and Korby and Kit, the two friends who had brought me to Boston, were getting a table.

I was on the phone with Jim, in a crouch, sobbing and saying, "I'm never going to see my grandchildren."

Although I said that many times over, the first one stands out because it was all such a shock. One day I was a busy single mother of three, running around like crazy, holding down a full-time newspaper job, playing on a tennis team and running races like the Saint Patrick's Road Race that I had recently completed and during which my fatigue had sent me to the doctor and led to my leukemia diagnosis, and the next day I was a cancer patient facing three rounds of chemotherapy, multiple hospitalizations and a bone marrow transplant.

The time that I remember most clearly occurred later – eight years ago – after my last relapse when, while Diane drove me to the emergency room on a snowy December night and I knew I was facing stronger chemotherapy than ever and my fourth bone marrow transplant, I slid down in the passenger seat and said, once again, "I'm never going to see my grandchildren, I'm never going to see my grandchildren."

And there I was yesterday in the maternity section of Norwalk Hospital holding my two-day-old granddaughter in my arms, feeling the warmth of her body, finding it hard to believe that my baby was now a father, and loving how happy Ben and Meghan looked.

Thanks to Dana-Farber, to The Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation that found me my donor, and to that donor, Denise, and to so many others, my prediction did not come true.

How happy I am to have been proven wrong!

A little jogging, a lot of snow

It's a good thing I finally got a run in on Saturday before it started snowing again.

I was going to run from my house out Ferry Street to Brunelle's Marina, but after running just a little bit I saw there was no shoulder. I turned around and went a couple of times around Mount Holyoke's lower lake, adding small hills by running to and from some dorms and then back through campus. I'm not sure how far I went. Maybe three miles or so.

I had re-routed because I figured there wasn't much sense in getting hit by a car while trying to get in shape for St. Pat's. Good clear thinking, as my father used to say.

After working hard in yoga, I took Maddie over to Jim and Jane's for a play date with Blue because I figured I didn't have much to give her. I went back home and conked out on the couch, taking such a long nap that I was disoriented when I woke up close to 5.

I dreamt that a friend wanted a long strand of rose quartz beads from my mother's collection, but all I could find were double-stranded chokers. I was upset that she was not there because she could have easily used her pliers to make the change. I went into another room and she actually was there, looking young and beautiful but crying with Diane because my father was gone. I said I didn't think she was real, but someone else came into the room and said she really was. I don't know if this was a good dream or a bad dream.

Meanwhile, I was supposed to go to Boston tonight for a meeting that the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation was having to organize a 5K walk/run to be held in Boston on April 26. It was scheduled to include donors, recipients and volunteers. This is the organization that got me Denise, so I was happy to attend. I didn't understand that I was joining a committee, but that's fine because I'm eager to help out with ongoing efforts to raise awareness about swabbing and raise money for ongoing testing.

Understandably with all of this snow falling, the meeting has been postponed to next Monday.

When there might be more another storm.