WEE CARE DELIVERY

Melissa, my daughter, and I got off to a late start on Friday for our whirlwind trip to deliver the Wee Care Packages to two Pats!!!!! (MC in Indiana and Zookeeper in Virginia.) We left late because we waited for the mail to come. Even though the mail was late, it was worth waiting for it as we received another Wee Care Package. Then, of course, I had to pack! hahahahahaha

What is a Wee Care Package? It's a collective gift. Members of Bcforum sent gifts to me for our first two members diagnosed with mets, metastatic breast cancer. Each gift meant something special to the giver, a pressed flower from their garden, their favorite book, something they made....

Melissa and I got to Buffalo at 3 in the morning and since it was almost time to leave Buffalo (according to the schedule in my head), I decided we would just cat nap in the car. At 7 we were at Niagara Falls, had no problems finding it as you can see the mist for miles! Now I have seen the longest falls (Victoria) and the one with the most water going over it (Niagara). I still have to get to Angel Falls (the tallest).

Before we entered Canada, the customs agent asked me what was in the packages! He just shook his head, rolled his eyes and waved me through when I told him I didn't know, but that I was delivering them from friends I had never met to friends I had never met!

As we drove through Canada, I sure missed the speediness, lightlessness, buildinglessness and people-crossing-the-streetlessness of highways/freeways/turnpikes/expressways/parkways. Fortunately, after a couple of hours of tapping my fingers on the steering wheel and repeatedly asking "Should we go back to Buffalo and catch Rte 90?" the speed limits changed from 50 KPH to 100 KPH and the lights disappeared.

In Michigan we followed a Titer truck for miles. They must have replaced the right rear door without painting it because only the first three letters of their name showed on the left door!!!!

I met SammyS in a fast food parking lot at Exit something or other in Michigan and we had a nice walk around and around the building. When I had called her an hour before to tell her I had indeed gone through Canada so I could meet her (I plan ahead!), I had asked her where I could get a needle to sew up the loose threads on the items I was knitting for MC and Zookeeper (and you wondered why I was delivering - I needed more time to finish!!!) and she brought me one! She also gave me a dozen and a half ears of good ole Michigan corn.

SammyS

Chell

Barb and John

MC has a warm quiet smile which lights up her face. She is tall, so when she stood up we hugged evenly. She opened up Barb's present and was relieved when I told her that she was to open up one present a day!

Why one a day? When my sister, Joan (Tinkerbel), was young, she had an extensive illness. A friend, Mrs. Morrison brought her a whole bunch of presents and told her to only open one a day! Every day Joan debated which of the brightly colored presents she should open. Well, Joan visited me when I first started chemo and she brought me a whole suitcase full of brightly wrapped presents, and it was great, every day I got to open one up. And every day I was reminded of her love.

Back to MC's! I do digress every once in a while.

We all sniffed MC's "Magic Mouthwash" (it smells like chewing gum), kibbitzed Chell as she flushed MC's port and heard about how Tripod, MC's other cat, was born with only three legs.

On the way back to Chell's we picked up a pizza at her husband Randy's pizza pub. It was great! Barb and John wanted to drive home in the daylight, but unless their car was from "Back to the Future," they didn't make it. Chell and I talked till the wee hours as I knitted madly. Then Randy came home and I talked to him to larger hours as I knitted furiously.

Yahoo.com had said that it was 850 miles from Kokomo, Indiana to Suffolk, Virginia. I had thought it may be a bit off. Unfortunately I was right. Maybe they forgot about Kentucky or West Virginia?

We got into Suffolk at 7 Tuesday morning and crashed at the Holiday Inn. Zonga met us at 1:00 and we were interviewed by the Virginian-Pilot reporter while I knitted in the hotel lobby.

We followed the reporter to Zookeeper's, it's great having a guide. Actually, not quite! We got to Zookeeper's road, the reporter missed the turn and Zonga obliviously followed her. Hahaha, had a traffic jam in the middle of the country as they turned to follow me. Then I saw Zookeeper's name on a mailbox and stopped and they kept going!!!!!! The reporter said through her open window that Zookeeper's was further up road. Then we had another traffic jam as they had to turn around to get back to Zookeeper's driveway.

Zookeeper

Zookeeper, Zonga, Melissa and I went out to eat with Zookeeper's local face-to-face support group. Had my first Hush Puppies! Were they ever good too! The group was having their fifth anniversary dinner. (Where should we have our first??????)

Zookeeper's Support Group

Wee Care Packages

Zookeeper, Apearms and I stayed up talking about blowing up ships (that is what he does) and how I should have her screen saver to waken me when I fall asleep (Zookeeper's is a dog that barks, catches balls, howls at the moon and snores).

After we "went to bed" I finished Zookeeper's present with SammyS's needle and Melissa snuck it onto the table with all the others.

I should have gone through Canada to get home. This time I would have told the customs agent, "They are bits and pieces of love and friendship, wrapped in bright paper and sent by 18 close friends to two wonderful women."

MC, Patricia McCombs, passed away on December 15, 1997 at 8:40 at home after a long hard struggle.

I will remember her as a gentle and quiet woman with a small warm smile that made me feel happy to be with her. As she sat on her bed this past August, making small jokes about her reconstruction, she was a woman surrounded by love from her daughter, her grandsons, the members of bcforum and her pets.

Her daughter, Chell, found BCforum for her and we have been all the richer for having known both of them.

When she came to Bcforum she always brought a feeling of gentleness into the room. I will miss her

Susan