Dear Kale Chronicles Readers,
I have not posted in a long time. I had been the primary caretaker for my elderly mother for many months. She died at the end of March and I swung into post-death tasks (in case some of you don’t know, there are many, from arranging the disposition of the body to contacting friends, relatives and banks, responding to condolence notes, gathering and distributing death certificates).
I also inherited 95% of the contents of my mother’s house where I have been living, so I have been sorting through her possessions, dispersing a few things to people we know and packing up items I want to take with me when I go.
In a matter of months I will be leaving my home in the Bay Area and my home state of California, so not only am I sorting through my mother’s things, I am sorting through and packing my own possessions every single day. I will eventually be moving to a coastal city in Washington State.
But before I move, while the family home is on the market, I am going to travel. I was stuck here during Covid, stuck here while my mother’s care demanded that I be here 24/7, stuck here hiding from process servers. I am about to become majorly unstuck and I will be celebrating by traveling to see friends, traveling to revisit my ancestral homeland of Ireland after forty-seven years, traveling for a study trip with Natalie Goldberg in Montgomery, Alabama and taking a fall color cruise from Boston to points north. I will be on the road for a minimum of six weeks, but possibly for twelve weeks or more before I make my way to my new home town.
I may or may not be inclined to write to you from the road. If I feel like it and my schedule permits I’ll send you a postcard. Eventually I’ll fetch up in a permanent location and take up blogging again.
Cheers!
Sharyn
thekalechronicles 
Hi Sharyn, I read you post today. For some reason I seldom can respond in the blog page. I have compassion for all that you have gone through since Covid. In my own way I can understand and certainly have heard you stories as we’ve shared this writing path. I send you good thoughts of comfort and justice as you move forward with leaving California and working through the legal network with your brother. You deserve every pleasure you’ve shared with us in this blog and I wish you the best. By the way, you CD’s came in last week’s mail. I am just beginning to play them out here in my work area. Thank you for thinking of me and I’ll see you on Wednesday. Much metta, Mary Jo
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Thank you, Mary Jo. Sometimes WordPress blogs can be diificult to respond to — I tried three times to post something on Nancy’s blog the other day. Thank you for persisting. I hope you enjoy the music and I’ll see you on Wednesday evening.
Sounds like an epic journey ahead, and I hope it’s full of pleasure, joy, and healing. And blogging if you get to it. I have never been able to write much while I travel somehow. Like a different part of my brain kicks in. That or little discipline…
WP can be a bitch for comments sometimes, and who knows why. Your last comment came through on my blog. And now MJ says she couldn’t, but here it is. Such mystery!!
Alright, just for you, Nancy, the fourth time. You are already 70, darling. Your 69th birthday marks the end of your 69th year, not the beginning of it. While I understand your anxiety about your mother’s unexpected death (I have outlived my father who died at 48 in a hiking accident, my older brother who blew an artery and bled out and my paternal grandparents, who had rheumatic heart and Bright’s disease (those last three died in their fifties), and I agree with you that the United States is a youth culture, you are alive now, today, this moment. Enjoy it rather than fretting it away.
Best wishes, Sharyn, for gre
Hi Sharyn
Thank you for your post. I send my condolences at the death of your Mother. She was a great woman, I was fortunate to meet her. I hope she left easily and the final care was not difficult for you or her. A big change for you and travelling to new places and taking in a new home in Oregon/Pacific Northwest? Big place, very beautiful with Massive old growth Ponderosa. My husband Dan lived in Oregon. His Mother died a year ago and he was executor and handling all the details, as you did. However his Mother left without ever discussing what assets she had. What a mess untangling it all from Colorado with repeated trips back and forth to get documents. Well, I’m still not writing very much, not sure why. Take care of yourself and I would love to get a Post Card if it works. Barbara Mertus Munyon P.O. Box 6313 Dillon, CO 80435. Have a WONDERFUL Time on your adventures. You deserve it. My Penstemon Rd home address works too. Dan says Hi. Love Barby
Care of Madge was brutal, Barby. I was on-call 24/7 for seven months straight. She had squamous cell cancer and some dementia. She could not be left unsupervised and she resisted hiring care (and then only agreed to eight hours a week). In the last four months of her life we had hospice, which was of some help and my cousin Jan came down to help at the end and at one other time, which was a godsend. But Madge got what she wanted: she died at home in her own room. She was not alone. I’m moving to Port Angeles eventually right up at the top of Washington on the strait of Juan de Fuca. It’s not far from where my Dad died. It’s beautiful up there and just a ferry ride from Canada’s Vancouver Island. My regards to Dan and to you.