I Can Do It Myself!

Tuesday November 17, 1992

Frank leaves at 8 a.m. to walk to his carving class. I get up just before 9 a.m., have breakfast and watch TV til 10:30. I cover my bandage with Saran Wrap and take a shower and wash my hair. Afterward I flush my catheter. I can do it all by myself! I get dressed and Kathy Murphy calls. We talk an hour. Everyone missed me last night. Frank brought home many loving messages.

After lunch Frank goes to the Valley to shop. I dust our bedroom and do the wash. I water plants. I'm exhausted by 5:00. Frank makes a cheesecake.

Isn't that so natural for all of us, from toddlers to the elderly, to want to say "I can do it all by myself." None of us wants to be dependent on someone else to do things for us, and we take so much pride in being independent. Sometimes, though, we have to just be humble and admit our need for others. My dad turned 80 this year and he has suffered with macular degeneration for many years, which means he cannot see very well and cannot drive. He is healthy in every other way, and he absolutely hates having to depend on other people to give him rides to the grocery store, the doctor, the bank...

The Maynard House

Friday October 23, 1992

Slept most of the day yesterday and still had a pretty good night. Amazing. Awoke feeling so much better. I'm taking my other anti-nausea medicine.

We tape saran wrap on my chest and I hang the pump outside the shower on the great hook Frank made for that and I'm in the shower. It feels great after 2 days of no shower but the water gets under the saran wrap. Frank helps me flush my catheter, not so bad, and I am dressed and made up by 11 a.m.

We go to Woodland Hills to look at carpet for Maynard game room. Back in Simi we have hot turkey lunch at Millie's. I still don't have an appetite. I've lost 13 pounds in the past 3 weeks.

After resting an hour I drive myself to Maynard. Frank wants me to check it out. I'm nervous driving with my pump beside me. We bought a belt to wear it easier. We have a quiet evening at home.

Oh, I tried that trick when I had my foot in a cast. I wrapped my cast in a black garbage bag and duct taped it to my leg around the cast. How I hated taking sponge baths, but the water got underneath the plastic every time in the shower.

The Maynard Avenue house in Newbury Park was the house where Frank lived and raised his 3 children prior to Mom and Frank's marriage in 1982. After they bought a beautiful new house together, the Maynard house became a rental. The photo above was the only one I could find that was taken in the game room (converted garage) of this house. This photo was taken in 1980 at Christmas. I am 27, Mom is 46, her mother Helen is 72, and Helen's mother Amanda Johnson is 101 years old! Grandma Johnson passed away the following year, Grandma Helen died at the ripe age of 89 and Mom died when she was not yet 59. I have already outlived my mother, but can I possibly live as long as my great-grandmother Johnson? She was always very active and took a walk every afternoon until she fell and broke her hip at the age of 101. What am amazing woman! She moved to the United States when she was just 16, lived in Minnesota and then Van Nuys, California, and raised 14 children in the same house where she died in 1981.