In my February 25th blog I promised you a post a week at my Association of Temporal Anthropologists blogsite. My last post was March 25th and it is now May. I apologize for the neglect but I cannot say I am sorry. I have been busy on family business.
I spent April in Montana helping my sister-in-law to take care of my mother-in-law, Jo, dying of cancer. My sister-in-law is disabled and couldn’t do it on her own. I was not the only one helping, but I was the only one without a nine-to-five job I had to get back to. Indeed my nephew and his fiancée postponed their wedding to help.
Before you say what a nice person I am, I did it for the sake of Karma--not my Karma but for Jo’s Karma. My mother-in-law has been the primary care giver for at least three people dying of cancer. Indeed her biggest regret was that she had brought my sister-in-law to Hamilton to take care of her, and now her daughter was taking care of her. Jo was an excellent patient, always cooperative (at least as much as her failing body would allow her to be) and she forced herself to stay upbeat. To the end she was doing what she could to take care of those caring for her.
April 1st Jo was given the final diagnosis of 4 to 6 weeks. She slowly slipped into a coma and passed away peacefully on May 1st. Her last words to me were “I love you.” She was the best mother-in-law one could ask for, never treating me as if I was not good enough for her son, but rather treating me like I was somehow special.
It’s difficult to write when you are hovering over someone who is too weak to press a call button or yell for help. And grief is a bit distracting. However life goes on. I have a second book to edit, which I promised Jo I would dedicate to her. And of course I need to keep up my blog--my attempt at getting attention without being too obnoxious.
To make up for the silence I am posting a short story I have been working on: High Stakes Poker on the Mississippi. This is one of Dr. Wendell Howe’s last projects as a Temporal Anthropologist before disappearing and presumed dead by the 27th century. This tale takes place a couple of months before my book Walking a Fine Timeline.
Click here to link to my short story. I hope you enjoy it.
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