Tag: family

A Relay Lost

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Next month, OVS will be participating in the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life at Buena High School in Ventura. I, for one, am very excited to see our school be so involved in something that could quite possibly change one in five of our lives in the future. I cannot wait to see people of all different worlds join together to fight one of the biggest killers today and have fun while doing it. To top it all off, this will be the first cancer-related cause I have attended, and I’m quite nervous. I’ve always avoided them because I have a problem confronting what has thoroughly turned my life upside down more than once and stolen the one person who, above all, meant the world to me.

My mom was a remarkable woman. Standing at 5’10 with tight curls the color of embers she wasn’t a woman you could easily forget. She fought for what she believed in and would seldom take no for an answer, which only made her all the more admirable to all that met her. We were all shocked when the news finally reached us. My mom had ovarian cancer and had up to two years to live.

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(My mom second from the right)

How could someone so strong let cancer take a hold of her?

For three months her body deteriorated from a combination of chemotherapy and the cancer itself to a frail shell of a woman with only one spot of her once fiery hair barely holding on. A woman who had once stood so tall and who was so outspoken was confined to a wheelchair and an oxygen mask at all times. It was at that time I was taken to go live with my dad after living practically my whole childhood with my mom.

No more than four months after her diagnosis I was called into the hospital to see my mom propped up onto a hospital bed unconscious and on a morphine drip. My heart must had fallen through the floor and my stack through the roof. This was my mother. A once divine and beautiful woman was spending the last few moments of life in a lifeless shell. How could something do this to her?

This disease, this cancer had taken everything from her. It had taken everything from me. A perfectly good woman was drained of everything and left to suffer, and left those around her to suffer. No one meant as much to me as my mom did. She was my only friend and the only person I could talk to, that I can still talk to. For ten years she served as my idol, now seven years later she serves as my inspiration.

Cancer isn’t just a disease that affects one person, it affects everyone around that person. It’s ruthless and merciless and won’t stop at anything once it grabs a strong enough hold of you. If there’s any way to help those who suffer from it, or have been closely affected by someone who suffers from it, it’s to get the word out. Cancer kills. Help others, help yourself.

Family’s Fallen Soldier

sennymcfly1 Comment

Dear Aunt Lela,

We didn’t know each other for very long. It was only recently that I got to experience the joy of being in your company. Every time we met you greeted me with a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek. You were always so loving. It didn’t matter who I was or who anybody was for that matter, you loved them and welcomed them into your home. Your humor made everyone smile. Your children loved you dearly. Spending time with you and Uncle Nick showed me what having a big family was like and I loved it.

And who can forget your cooking? Soul food! Talk about your typical black family, getting together after months and sometimes years of not seeing each other and enjoying yummy food and family time. Delicious collard greens, mouthwatering macaroni, Dominoes and cigars in the back yard, Al Green playing on the stereo. Even after such a long period of being apart it was like we had never left. You brought the family together. You raised the family. It’s true I wasn’t there for most the family’s relationship, but since the few times that we have met, I’ve come to the conclusion that you are most definitely very important to me. I didn’t realize how much losing you would make me cry. We didn’t see it coming, or at least I didn’t. So, I guess my point is, if you are in Heaven or Paradise or wherever else we go when we die, know that I am sending you my love and prayers every day. If only we could have just one more day to spend together. The last family gathering. But, you are supposed to be there aren’t you? Love you Aunt Lela.

Your Great Niece,

Madisen

❤

Aunt Lela

R.I.P. Lela Norris

The Fogel Family

venturatrekerLeave a comment

 

Over the weekend, Israel experienced a heavy blow.  An entire family was brutally murdered in their sleep by a Palestinian in the settlement of Itamar near Nablus.  Both parents Udi and Ruth were stabbed in their bed, the killer then slashed the throat of 11-year-old Yoav, knifed 3-year-old Elad in the heart, and slit the throat of their three-month-old baby, Hadas.

At present the Al Aqsa martyrs brigade, the military wing of Fatah has taken credit for the attack.  Nothing though is conclusive yet because Al Aqsa frequently takes credit for acts they did not actually commit to strengthen their own popularity.  Prime Minister Netanyahu has started a huge military operation to hunt down the man responsible.  The IDF has already arrested twenty people.  We can only hope that the perpetrator for this heinous crime be caught.

My Four Parents and Me.

theycallmedame2 Comments

Every time I mention to someone that I have a stepparent (two, actually) they always react the same. They get a sympathetic look on their face and either apologize (for what?) or say something along the lines of, “Oh, that must be terrible for you!”

Um, why would it be terrible for me?

People have the idea that stepparents must be evil beings who torture their stepchildren and are unfit to be parents drilled into their minds. It’s like their reasoning goes like this:

Cinderella had a stepmom.
Said stepmom was evil.
Therefore, using the “I’m an Idiot” property, all stepmoms and stepdads alike must be evil.

I’m sorry, what?

I love my stepparents! They’re just all around good people!


My stepdad, Andy, on the right, teaching a student how to properly land a hanglider.

My mom’s husband, Andy, is probably the nicest person you’ll ever meet. He’s kind and funny and he and I have formed a secret alliance to sneak junk food into the house when my mom isn’t looking. He comes to all of my performances (without being asked!) and is always up to playing or hanging out with my brother, Ben, and I. He’s made my mom very happy.


My stepmom, Rita, whose smile never leaves her face.

My dad’s wife, Rita, is like a giant kid. Her and I have nerd conversations about Star Wars and Star Trek, and argue over which cartoon animated show is the best (she usually wins said arguments by pulling the “I’m a cartoon producer so what I say goes!” card). When she has a little too much sugar she starts bouncing off the walls and goes and gets oddly colored highlights in her hair. I’ve never seen my Dad happier than the day they got married.

I definitely lucked out on the stepparent front. Now my brother and I have not two, not three, but four loving parents who would go to the world’s end just to make sure that we were alright.


I love them, and they are the farthest from evil as someone can ever get.

When I Grow Up, I…

yrreskrapLeave a comment

Life is an expensive sports car on the Autobahn. We are often caught up in the thrill of living, that adrenaline pumping feeling of exhilaration, that we often forget where we are going, or why we are where we are in the first place. Everything is just a blur. Colors, sounds, people all mesh into one, giant miasma of lights and din.

For these reasons, people sometimes forget what their aspirations are in life or where they want to be in 10-15 years. But sometimes people don’t spend enough time figuring out what they want. Sometimes people don’t know what they want and are stumbling along, playing life by ear.

I know what I want. Or at least I think I do.

When I grow up, I want to be an anesthesiologist at a well known hospital, helping save countless lives of people that won’t remember my name in a month and whose faces I will forget in a few days. I want to have a Cal Tech diploma under my name and have graduated with stellar grades.

When I grow up, I want to own a house in Northern California (preferably near San Francisco), up where the air is crisp with the hint of ocean air or in a clean beach in Southern California (so that would mean Santa Monica is out of the picture). My dream house would either be inspired by contemporary, sleek modern designs or by warm Spanish decor. The house would be complete with a beautiful kitchen, bathroom, master bedroom, and a roomy walk-in closet. The floors would be bamboo for environmentally friendly reasons and the view would have to include the beautiful ocean. The house must be big enough for 4 people but most importantly, it must be away from the noise of the city for privacy but close enough to a city for convenience.Read More »