THE LOWE FAMILY NEWSLETTER : VOLUME 157 SEPTEMBER 2024
Dear Family and Friends,
In August we found ourselves rallying to support another family member with
cancer: Lori, who was diagnosed with a very early stage breast cancer. After
consultations with her doctors, Lori decided a double mastectomy was the
treatment choice with which she was most comfortable. As we all know breast
cancer has a tendency to recur and Lori did not want to live with that threat.
She was very relieved that she does not have to undergo any further cancer
treatment but she will be scheduled for reconstructive surgery in a few months.
We now have three breast cancer survivors in our family !Next month I will be
celebrating 25 years of being cancer free!
Prior to her diagnosis Lori had
organized another Virtual Memorial Walk in Ming Lee’s honor: combining his love
of an active outdoors lifestyle with a fundraiser for the Alliance For Cancer
Gene Therapy, an organization where one hundred percent of donations go to
cancer research. So on Sunday , September 22nd Lori, Claudia and a large group
of supporters walked in Indianapolis whilst I and all my Kansas City family
walked too, along with family and friends everywhere. Lori set up a special
facebook page (Ming Lowe Virtual Walk 2024) so that we could post photos of our
participation..Kudos to Lori for pressing forward with this just a couple of
weeks since her surgery! Despite being in considerable pain and sleep deprived,
she continued to promote this event, and managed the distribution of a
considerable number of custom designed t-shirts to mark this special day -
thankfully with the help of Claudia and friends.
Proudly wearing our matching T-shirts to pay tribute to our beloved Ming-Lee before our walk on a beautiful but drizzily afternoon
In June the highly contagious
hand, foot and mouth disease caused a week of missed summer camp for Lochlan,
Liam and Emmy Lou. Cillian was also affected and since his other babysitter was
pregnant and the mother of a two year old, he had to spend most of the week at
Grandma’s along with his siblings. Fortunately I have been exposed to this
disease a few times and have never had any symptoms so I was not at all
concerned about catching it. Lochlan and Cillian were definitely the most
affected with rashes on their feet, legs, arms, butts and mouth ulcers which
caused the most discomfort as they could not eat or drink without pain. Lochlan
became so dehydrated that he had to go to the ER for treatment. He was
prescribed some very strong pain medication and this made a huge difference - he
was able to drink and eat normally and his mood was greatly improved - so much
so that I wondered if he could possibly be kept on the medication until he
entered kindergarten!. Emmy Lou had had the disease previously so had a very
mild case but of course assured me that she was very sick every five minutes!
Liam had no visible symptoms of the disease but was still banned from Summer
Camp as they were worried he could be.infectious.
In late June, Cillian had
drainage tubes surgically inserted into his ears in hopes of preventing his
constant ear infections and rounds of antibiotics. Unfortunately a few weeks
later, after another ear infection, and a build up of fluid it was decided that
his adenoids would need to be removed. He had a second surgery in late August
and it seemed that an epiphany had occurred while he was under anesthesia, for
when he recovered, he immediately demanded to use the potty- something he had
not previously done being only twenty months old!. He pooped twice and peed
about five times that day! I was expecting him to be groggy and grumpy after
this surgery - not intent on potty training!! Reminds me of Emmy Lou who potty
trained herself before she was two years old.
Big brother Liam is scheduled to
have his tonsils and adenoids removed next month as his tonsils are so oversized
( in the top five percent according to his doctors) that they are touching and
obstructing his breathing.Having suffered through two of my children’s
recoveries from this surgery I am preparing for a lot of misery despite offering
unlimited milkshakes, lollipops, and ice cream treats!.
Josh returned to us in
August, following a brief stay with the Remsbergs in Orlando, after spending a
month or so in Brazil. Prior to Brazil he spent months in Bolivia volunteering
at the animal rescue park as he has for so many years.Once again Ava Claire and
Owen insisted on picking Uncle Josh up from the airport so that he could spend
some time with them before the rest of us claimed his time and attention.
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| Uncle Josh playing on the beach with Ray and |
Callie
Josh
actually elected to spend a few nights in my home this year as his return
coincided with a visit from Sarah’s parents who flew in from Maine to help take
care of their grandchildren with me: Sarah and Sean were taking their first ever
vacation, without their children, to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary!
The Logues gave me a vacation too by having Emmy Lou and Liam spend a couple of
nights at their house! I only had Cillian and Liam spend one night with me and
both boys slept well! Of course Grandma let them sleep in her bed, with hot milk
, a bedtime treat, and lots of bedtime stories.We grandparents were delighted to
be able to give Sarah and Sean some much needed alone time.
Josh did not seem to
appreciate the fact that this Spring his aged mother had made numerous trips up
and down the stairs - carrying precariously balanced armloads of his possessions
into my SUV to drive them to his brother’s house where he now stays when in
Kansas City. I should also like to point out that more than once in recent years
I had dared to suggest that this was a task Josh himself might want to undertake
but he seemed to have no need of any of the bedding, clothing, backpacks, pots
and pans etc that were bulging out of my closets and clogging my dresser
drawers. At the time I was having my new flooring installed so all my upstairs
closets had to be emptied. I decided that rather than hauling all of Joshua’s
stuff elsewhere in my house and then having to haul it all back, that it would
be more sensible for me to just deliver it all to his very spacious walk-in
closet up the street. However when Josh unexpectedly decided to stay at my house
he was not very happy that he didn’t even have a change of clothes here anymore
and insinuated that his mother had virtually evicted him! I hope that Sarah and
Sean got more thanks for their labors as when I started emptying my car into
their house Sarah quickly stepped in to offer her services to haul it all down
to Joshua's closet - with Sean’s help of course. She was flabbergasted at the
amount of stuff and wondered if it was all really worth keeping. I knew the
answer to that one but frugal Josh would be absolutely furious if any of his
items were deemed trash! But I have to say that he did actually fill a huge
trash bag with things that he decided were no longer usable - which he threw
into my trash can claiming there was no room in his! Unfortunately he also
returned several empty crates and suitcases that I had used to pack all his
stuff into - I had hoped that they would be remaining in his spacious closet
instead of cluttering up mine again.
I must give Josh credit though for
surprising me with new under cabinet motion sensor lighting in my kitchen - very
handy for those middle of the night snack attacks! He also removed the built in
radio/ cassette player mounted over my kitchen desk declaring it obsolete due to
all my Echo devices! But Josh had another present for me - a new antenna for my
family room television - one that required no wires running from my television ,
through a hole drilled in my window frame( which I am sure negated my lifetime
warranty) and outside to my flat panel antenna- intended for indoor use only-
that Josh had assured me would function fine mounted on my siding and exposed to
temperatures varying from minus twenty degrees to one hundred and ten degrees in
the shade. Despite my misgivings I have to admit it has worked well (except for
occasional weak or lost signals) for a couple of years! This antenna-that I
believe feeds off my internet signal- came in pieces and once assembled reminded
me of the large metal ariels that used to sit on top of house roofs! I
desperately hoped that this was not going to be mounted on my chimney! Now
interestingly enough Josh elected to install this new antenna at the very time I
was watching the Chiefs pre- season game with Ava Claire and Owen who were
spending the weekend with me so their parent’s could enjoy a romantic weekend
away. They were very excited about the prospect of making some money from my
potty mouth during the game, informing me that I would owe them each a quarter
for every naughty word! But once Josh unexpectedly arrived at my house they
immediately glued themselves to him!
Already anxious about the location of this
metal monstrosity and the possibility of missing my game I dared to ask Josh
where he was thinking of mounting it and was amazed when he responded ”under the
deck”. How could this be? I remembered all too well walking around a room with
antenna in hand hoping to find the one spot with a signal that would give you
both picture and sound on your television set! Surely it needed to be mounted in
a high spot, clear of anything that might block the signal but I knew better
than to question Joshua’s thought process on this one - he considers his high-
tech savvy mother a technological cretin. I headed to the basement to watch the
game on my backup television. Josh seemed to have Ava Claire and Owen helping
him out with his installation as I heard something about looking for wires and
feeding them through - I heard all kinds of alarming noises and had visions of
holes in walls and ceilings but tried to calm myself with the thought that Josh
had definitely used the word ‘wireless’ about this new contraption!. And I have
to admit that once again Josh was right - no visible wires and it works mounted
under the deck because that is where my internet signal enters the house! I also
have more channels, a better signal and less interference! And fortunately my
change jar is still full as my grandchildren were too busy with Josh to catch
the endless stream of profanities that ran out of my mouth as the Chef's lost
the game!
August was a busy month for me as Sarah and Sean’s three eldest
children no longer had summer camp. Coryn returned to work three weeks ahead of
her children’s start date and Kay and Richard needed my help for a few days with
Alex so Grandma’s day camp was very busy! Ava Claire and Owen were a big help
with their younger cousins and pitched in to help clean up all the mess! Ava
Claire is very into skin care at the moment so every time she has a sleepover I
am treated to a facial!
Fall is upon us and summer cookouts will be over for the
year! I have never been a lover of hot dogs but who knew that this summer’s
newest fad in Springfield, Ohio - according to Trump- was Haitian hot dogs? I
bet nobody there lets their wiener dogs outside in case the neighbors decide to
fire up the grill! Trump is continuously feeding his cooked up conspiracy
theories to millions of Americans who swallow every lie with relish. Hard to
digest that there are so many people willing to take a seat at his table.
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| Alex and Cillian |
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| In the playhouse on Grandma's deck |
