Archive for July, 2008

Hard memories and moving ahead

I talked to Amy Mitchell today. Her 3-year-old son, Paxten, died of leukemia five days after Mike died. We talked about the flashbacks and the short-term memory loss.
“How are you dealing with that?”
“Dealing with what?”
We’re moving through parallel grief. Good days and bad, anger and acceptance, laughter and tears.
Paxten is riding a purple dragon and [...]

Flashbacks

I was browsing through the blog of another mom who lost a child to cancer just five days after Mike died. One of the things she said was that she keeps going back to the moment he died. It comes at seemingly random moments, when all seems to be going well, and suddenly I’m back [...]

I made it.

So I made it on to the site, I really miss Mikey, Im the little cousin that could. I would frequently call mikey when everything was down and out on my end and mikey always gave it to me straight. I am just like him in his sense of humor and “Boyd” way, you dont [...]

Weekend without Mike

Danny and Jennifer came up this weekend with Meghan and Trey (the two older girls were busy), and we went to Asheville’s annual street festival, Bele Chere.
I was fine most of the time, but a few times during the weekend, I really, really missed Mike. Danny would say something, and I could almost hear Mike [...]

The plan is taking shape

More friends and family have said they want to come to the rally in Savanah. My niece Christina wants to come. I might have to pass her a few bucks to get her there, but she and Mike adored each other. She got him tickets to a Slayer concert. I still have the hat, worn [...]

No need to worry…

One of my concerns is that the health care not be as good as it can possibly be.
    –George W. Bush inTipp City, Ohio, April 19, 2007, commenting on benefits provided to the military.
That was just under a year before Mike died. And he doesn’t have to worry because health care is nowhere near [...]

Get your plaid on

Things are starting to come together for our rally in Savanah on Aug. 24. I mailed off the permit application today for a gathering on the mall in Daffin Park.
I was still pretty angry when I came up with the idea of a rally, and I guess I still am angry that Mike died because [...]

The point

We visited with old friends this last week. Rob and Craig have been friends since fifth grade, and Craig’s entire family has become like our own. I call them the Jersey Gang. We’ve all vacationed together, the men played softball (pretty badly) for years. We have welcomed babies and watched them grow up and grieved [...]

Talking about Mike

I think it’s easier when I’m around people who’ve been with me since Mike died. Everyone wants to know how I’m coping and what happened at the end and on and on.
I’m coping, but it’s harder here. Maybe it’s because I visited my sister’s grave and then my father’s grave yesterday. Mike doesn’t have a [...]

Timing

It seems as though we’re timing things as before Mike got sick, after Mike got sick, before Mike died and since Mike died. All our lives seem to be broken down into that right now. Peyton and I were talking about her friendship with a boy tonight and it was broken down into those terms [...]

Help Life o' Mike

We need your help now more than ever. Your tax-deductible donation will help us get Patient Pals and Family Friends off the ground. Please consider a gift in honor or in memory of a loved one.

Patient Pals & Family Friends volunteer training

Our Feb. 27 training had to be postponed, but we have rescheduled. Join us 9 days, as we train our next group of volunteers for Patient Pals & Family Friends. The four-hour training will run 10 a.m.-2 p.m. and will include lunch. Patient Pals are people who have experience with an illness or disability. After training, they will be paired with someone who is newly diagnosed or disabled. Family Friends will be volunteers who are paired with family members of people who are ill or disabled, and will have been through the expeience of having a loved one with illness or disability.

In Loving Memory

Life o' Mike has participated two memorial services to remember those who have died from our broken health care system, one in Asheville and one in Raleigh. If you would like to organize more of these services, please contact lifeomike@gmail.com and we will help put it together. The services include stories, prayers and information on how people of faith can make a difference. About 45,000 people die each year because they don’t have health insurance, according to a recent study by Harvard Medical School and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. That breaks down to one American every 12 minutes. Those people can be honored in the service by a bell chime and a moment of silence every 12 minutes in the service. For more information, call Leslie Boyd at 828-243-6712.

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