Rough Seas

Monday October 5, 1992

We have a light cereal breakfast. I feel great! We have a quiet day aboard ship except the seas are rough. After breakfast I don't feel so well even though I'm taking the seasick pills, so Frank goes to buy me the wrist bands for seasickness. They work great and I enjoy lunch. Hester and Emma are quite ill. Bob and June don't show up.

In the afternoon I play the horse racing and bingo. Frank takes a dance class to learn the Achy Breaky. We have a lovely dinner and great stage show and go to bed early (10 p.m.) as we must get up at 5 a.m. tomorrow for Rome.

The bands for nausea are a knitted elasticated wrist band, which operates by applying pressure on the Nei Kuan acupressure point on each wrist by means of a plastic stud. I tried those when I was sick with my pregnancy in 1992 for 9 months, and they didn't work for me at all. Nothing did. I'm glad Mom got relief. It would have been awful to spend all that money on a cruise only to be sick without relief.

It's a long way from Santorini, Greece to their next port in Naples, Italy, and the cruise ship had to travel in open seas to get around the boot of Italy. She doesn't say what the weather is like this day, but I read ahead in her journal and saw that they are about to get rain, so that might be why the seas are so rough.

Los Angeles, California to Venice, Italy

Monday September 28/29, 1992 "Long Day"

Up at 7 a.m. to get ready to leave at 9:15 for the fly-away where we catch the 10:00 bus for LAX. At LAX we have a 2 hour wait to fly out at 1 p.m. for Paris, France. The flight is almost 11 hours. They feed us too much too often. We try to sleep, but only rest. We arrive in Paris at 10:10 a.m. (8 hours ahead). At 11:40 we fly Alitalia Airline to Venice, Italy, almost 2 hours. They feed us again.

We're picked up by bus and wisked to our Star Princess cruise ship. Our room is large and lovely. The ship is huge. We nap for 3 hours.

At dinner we are seated with 3 couples in their 60s. They are all outgoing and friendly. Lovely dinner. We take the boat to see Venice at night. It is all lighted up and quite lovely. We retire about 11 exhausted.

I have kept Mom's passport all these many years. It was issued January 5, 1987 for the ski trip to Innsbruck, Austria that I took with Mom and Frank. Surprisingly, the passport does not show a stamp for Austria, but it does have a stamp dated February 15, 1987 when we arrived at Heathrow Airport in London for an extra excursion after our ski trip. The next stamp is dated February 20, 1987 when they returned to Los Angeles.

Page 2 of the passport shows a stamp for Gatwick Airport in London in April 1990 and Page 3 shows they arrived in Venice September 29, 1992, Barcelona on October 11, and back to Los Angeles on October 13. There are 18 blank pages after these entries that should have been filled with exciting ports-of-call visited during her golden years that were stolen from her. Mom loved to travel and I know she would have taken many more trips in the past 20 years.

It cracked me up when Mom complained about being fed too much and too often on their flights. 20 years later, all we get from the airlines is non-alcoholic beverages and a bag of nuts on a flight!

I have only flown to Europe twice in my lifetime, that trip to Austria in 1987 and a 10-week trip to 14 European countries in 1974 when I graduated from college. Both times the exhaustion and jet lag put me in bed sick the first week. Will Mom adjust to the major time zone change? I can't believe she stayed up til 11 p.m. this first night!

Packing for Our Mediterranean Cruise

Sunday September 27, 1992

Up at 8:00 but tired. The dogs have been barking alot at night lately. That really disrupts our sleep. We spend the day leisurely getting packed for our trip, preparing the house and yard for our absence and making phone calls. We retire about 10:30. Some pain today, mostly discomfort.

We have decided to go to Chris and Ric's with Gary and Maria for Thanksgiving. We'll go early so I can help Chris with the cooking, probably Tuesday or Wednesday.

No wonder Mom is tired. Besides the fact that she has cancer, she was up partying past midnight and then the dogs kept her up with their barking. Tomorrow she has a long day of traveling to Europe with a huge time zone change. I have only been to Europe twice, but I remember that I was sick for the first week of my trip both times due to exhaustion and jet lag.

"Fighting Cancer"

Sunday August 23, 1992

Slept in til 8:30. Spent the rest of the day expecting Deb, Phil and kids. I straightened the house and read alot. Frank worked on the trailer and in the garage.

I'm reading a new book I received in the mail called "Fighting Cancer." It's a good uplifting informative book. According to the book I've been doing everything right so far, staying informed, asking alot of questions, getting a second opinion, but mostly having a positive attitude and talking about my cancer openly with anyone who's interested.

The kids never show up. Frank is disappointed and hurt. He calls them.

We went to Newbury Park at 8:30 to give Jan a check for our cruise September 27 to the Mediterranean.

I can't help wondering why Frank's son Philip and his family never showed up. I would be upset at being stood up after waiting all day for them. Maybe it had to do with the marital problems they were having. At least it forced Mom to take it easy and just have a restful day of reading.

I looked up the book "Fighting Cancer" and it is in it's 13th printing as of 2008. It was written by Annette and Richard (Dick) Bloch. Dick co-founded H&R Block, Inc. He was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1978 and given 90 days to live. After two years of arduous treatment, he was completely cured. Richard and Annette dedicated their lives to helping the next person diagnosed with cancer. Together, they wrote three books, "Fighting Cancer", "Cancer ...there's hope", and "Guide for Cancer Supporters". Their book is available for free on-line.

Yet another big cruise coming up, this time to the Mediterranean.

Future Summer Plans

Saturday June 20, 1992

I think I might go to Gary and Maria's to see Rosa (Maria's sister) for a short time today, but get too busy running around doing I don't know what that I don't find time.

At 7:00 we go square dancing with our club, a visitation in Woodland Hills cross from Kaiser Hospital. It's a good time and afterward we all go out for coffee and snacks at Red Robin.

Our future plans include a one-week trip to Colorado in July, Lake Don Pedro July 13, Justin's visit July 4-11, visit Chris July 18, El Capitan campout in August, Dixieland Jazz Festival September 5-7, Hawaii in October, Mediterranean cruise in October, Dee and Steve's in August. All this should keep us pretty busy.

Wow, I am exhausted just hearing about all the trips they have planned. I never thought of Mom and Frank as wealthy, but how did they find the money to travel to all these places every year and go out to eat at restaurants almost every night? Both of them were retired. Mom was too young to collect social security and had no pension. Frank was collecting a pension from the City of Los Angeles, but surely it was much less income than working full-time. My husband and I just got back from a trip to Hawaii where we stayed in our Wyndham timeshare, which was booked a year in advance, I got a great deal on airfare, just $300 round trip for me and $99 for Ric on Alaska Airlines companion fare, which we get every year by opening a credit card with the airline. We ate out only once the whole week, at Wendy's for $1.29 small chili. All other food was purchased at Costco after arriving at the Kona airport and prepared in the kitchen of our condo. We didn't take any excursions, we didn't go to any luaus, we didn't go on any cruises. We just relaxed around the resort pool, spent the day at the beach, or took a drive to different spots on the Big Island, but not too far since gas costs almost $5/gallon in Hawaii. I can't imagine ever getting to the point in my life where money is no object.