James is here
My niece, Christina, flew in last night and we called James at lunchtime today. He’s had a really hard time with Mike’s death and I’ve been letting him find his own way to deal it.
Christina thought otherwise. Being a Boyd woman, she decided James has had enough time to deal with his emotions.
“The hell with that! I didn’t fly my blonde ass here to NOT see James,” she said.
So she tracked down his work number in Raleigh and called at lunchtime, and as we were out with some of my friends tonight, he texted her to say he was here playing with the dog. She showed it to me and we were on our way home in a split second. I saw “James”and “here playing with Beasley,” and I was thrilled.
“You should’ve seen Auntie,” she told James when we got home. “She literally skipped out of that party!”
I have to admit I did. This is Mike’s best friend. This is the person who supported him both financially and emotionally as he was dying. This is Mike’s other brother.
After Mike died, we joked with Danny that we had adopted James.
“He’s your new brother and he’s our favorite now,” we said.
“Dude, you know you can’t get away now, right?” Danny said. “They’ll track you down if you try to get away. This is it.”
James said he was OK with that.
James had to deal with the death of his best friend — the man who showed him how to love other people more than he loves himself — and he’s had a hard time with that.
I didn’t expect to see him this weekend, so I was thrilled to see the text message he sent Christina.
I can’t even put into words how happy we are to see James.
I hugged him and thought for a moment I’d never let him go. He’s home with us at last. We’ll have everyone Mike loved best at the rally on Sunday.
Have a beer in May
Stop into Altamont Brewing, 1042 Haywood Road, West Asheville, any time in May and ask for their "charity" beer of the day. Buy one and Life o' Mike gets $1. In fact, we get a buck for each one sold. So go in every day and have one to support Life o' Mike.
Thanks, Altamont!
Patient Pals & Family Friends
Life o' Mike has a peer support program for people with one or more serious or chronic medical issues or disabilities.
We aim to reduce isolation and fear among people who have conditions, including psychiatric illness, HIV/AIDS, diabetes, mild dementia or other cognitive disorder or disability, thereby reducing depression and complications as people learn to improve self-management of their medical conditions.
Patient Pals help alleviate feelings of isolation and frustration. They can help people develop a list of questions to ask the doctor and then accompany the person to the doctor to make sure all the questions are answered, taking notes to be sure the person understands the doctor’s answers.
Our trained volunteers also accompany their “Pals” to art exhibits, movies and walks outdoors, meet for coffee, call to check in and more.
Our Pals have experienced weight loss, improvement in diabetes, HIV, psoriasis, depression and more, just because they have someone who cares about them. Some relationships develop into longer-term friendships; other Pals move on to more independent lives.
Family Friends are there to help caregivers and other family members grow into their new role.
We need volunteers, who are asked to donate a minimum of one hour a week. Training is free and includes information on active listening, ways to help and when to know more help is needed.
And of course, we need funding.
To learn more, call Leslie Boyd at 828-243-6712 or e-mail lifeomike@gmail.com.
Start From Seed
Life o' Mike has a new program- Start from Seed (SFS).
SFS is a volunteer doula program aimed at providing non-medical, comprehensive support to low income, high-risk women and families of Buncombe County focusing on three areas:
1. We help new doulas with certification and training in return for their participation as a volunteer doula for SFS
2. We mentor volunteer doulas with their first few clients
3. Our volunteer doulas provide birth and postpartum doula services to low income, high risk moms, providing support and tools to empower them as a new parent.
A birth doula is a trained and experienced professional who provides continuous physical, emotional and informational support to the mother before, during and just after birth; a postpartum doula provides emotional and practical support during the postpartum period.
Start from Seed clients are referred to us from the Buncombe County Department of Health’s Nurse-Family Partnership Program, Western North Carolina Community Health Services, and Mission Hospital. The Program is intended and designed for growing clients’ inner strength and helping them gain empowerment to help them cope with the emotional, physical and mental challenges of childbirth, labor, and motherhood.
Our new moms and their infants have many needs. If you would like to help them get off to a good start, please visit our Start from Seed web site: Start from Seed, or call Program Director Chelsea Kouns at 804-814-9946.
Post a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.