A Tribute to Camilla

It's been a difficult week...

My mind has been consumed with thoughts of Camilla... remembrances ... images of her when she was healthy. I was afraid I would only "see" her as she was at her weakest. I was wrong.

Our community has been amazing. Some of us rounded up photos and Connie mounted them on boards which we had up in the foyer of the church and at the reception. Now they hang in Camilla's home. As I look at them, my mind goes back to the first half of her 4th grade year - when she was so healthy...so happy.

I flashed on when Eskie died, and how Camilla advised me to make a "Memorial to Eskie" and even told me which pictures to put on the blog. I had posted about losing Eskie, but she didn't think it was good enough. So that made me think...and I decided to post some photos of a more healthy Camilla...
This is Camilla with her good friend, Eve. This is a girl who use to be a friend of Camilla's, Maren. In the center is her good friend, Dana...and then there's Camilla. I think this was in 3rd grade.
This is Kelli and Camilla playing soccer together. Camilla had actually been diagnosed when these photos were taken, but as you have learned about Camilla, that didn't stop her from playing.

Here is Camilla in the beginning of her 4th grade year. In the first photo, Camilla, Dana and I were taking photos of each other. In the second one, Camilla was sharing about herself...she loved to swim, thus the goggles!

I LOVE this photo of Camilla and Dana. This was "Friday Silent Reading"...which is usually not too silent. They were sitting outside the classroom looking at a photo album. Wonder what was so funny? In this second photo, Camilla was leading the pack as they lined up to come in from recess.


Here, Camilla is sharing...not sure what. In this second picture, look at this absolutely precious face!




This is another of my favorite photos of Camilla and Dana...and then typical Camilla - giving 100% on her school work.

Another sweet shot of our beautiful Camilla. This second picture is Halloween. Cody is Dorothy...a very pretty Dorothy, I might add. Then comes Camilla the "surfer dude" and Dana the ... is that a mouse? Megan must have been a princess?

Junie B. Jones were some of Camilla's favorite books in 3rd and 4th grade. This last photo is one that Dana took of us...I love it.



Still more to come.........but it's late now....

She fought the good fight

Our precious Camilla passed away today. I am resting in the fact that she is not suffering or in anymore pain.

On December 17th, the doctors gave her maybe 2 weeks - 1 month to live...Camilla had other ideas. She has been the epitome of determination, of a strong will, of a lover of life itself. I think of all the things she has done since she was given the time table in December - she made the trip to the OC and Family Guy...she got to see Drew's movie "Music and Lyrics"...she saw other movies in the theater...she went to a production of CATS...she had a New Year's Eve party...she's hung out with her friends...she went to and watched some of John's sports...Camilla made the most of her time.

This picture was taken Saturday...Gabe is the only one of my kids she hadn't met. She had told me how much she wanted to meet him and Emily. Emily had a cold so didn't come with us. I'm so glad I took this picture!

Camilla...you will be missed more than words can ever express...

Way to go there Bonnie and June!

My mom and June are 2 good bridge players...well, maybe I should say they are 2 great bridge players! They are PARTNERS... You already know about my mom if you read this blog..but you may not have known about June.

My understanding is that they like to compliment each other on their hair. Ken, June's husband, told me they were identical triplets (he's including himself in this trio) ...I think that's what he said. You can see a photo of these 3 yeah-hoos (another Texas word that I won't waste my time on to look in any dictionary because I KNOW it wouldn't be there!) on the post about my mom's birthday.

"Shebang"

I AM a school teacher...I DO teach spelling...I AM from Texas...and there are SOME WORDS I may say a little different than ...say someone from anyplace else. So I am writing the post about my Mom becoming an Octogenarian and I wrote the word 'shabang'..cause I KNOW it's a word, I've used it all my life...but when I look it up to make SURE I'm spelling it correct - it's not there. My ONLY thought was that the dictionary was not up to speed. Did I even think I might possibly have spelled it incorrectly? Why no....

After I had finished that post...I was wondering about 'shabang' and thought 'uh-oh...maybe it's spelled with an E??? Well, guess what The Newbury House Dictionary says?

she-bang / n.slang the whole shebang: all of something (objects, a situation, an event, etc.): We packed all our files and equipment, and the movers took the whole shebang in our new offices. \\ The wedding was expensive, but her parents paid for the whole shebang.

Mr. Webster gave a similar definition...

I didn't want to write the whole shebang about Mom's birthday over again, so I just wrote this post so I wouldn't discredit myself as a good speller.

Happy Birthday, Mom

April 12th, my mom entered the Octogenarian Club. Now this is a rather exclusive club...you have to be at least 80 years old and no older than 89 to be included. My mom entered it in style on Thursday!

John David and Becky organized the whole shabang (unfortunately, if you look up this word in the dictionary, it won't be there, but us Texans use it so the dictionary must be at fault). My main job was to deliver Mom there at 5:40 p.m. I didn't think it would be too difficult of a task as she was to have her PEDICURE at 4 p.m. and then and ONLY then would she try on shoes with no socks! Texas toes must look good! Well, unfortunately, some one ran their car through the plate glass windows of the beauty shop and so the shop had to close and NO PEDICURE. Not a problem...we went shopping. We went to the FIREWHEEL... great place! Finding the Firewheel is another story. "Oh it doesn't take long to get there...I know right where it is." It was SUPPOSE to take about 10 minutes...we really enjoyed our HOUR LONG drive. Thank goodness we had a lot to talk about!

So here we are at 5:15 heading toward my brothers...but I had no intention of going to his house YET...I was still planning on mom trying on shoes. She had other ideas. Stall tactics came into play at that point...and they worked. I got her there on time and she was greeted with a big surprise.

After all the initial hugs and greetings, Becky served up lasagne, salad, and bread.













After we had eaten and visited awhile, we sat Mom down in front of the TV and showed a video of photographs that had been put to music. It started out with a photo of Mom at 14...then several of her and my dad when they were dating and first married. There were wonderful photos of my grandparents...and then there were photos of our families when the kid were young...growing up...and their weddings. What a beautiful gift.

After the video, it was time to cut the cake.



What a special evening it was. I, for one, was so happy I was able to be with Mom for her 80th birthday...but also just to have 2 1/2 days to just hang out with her.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Can you believe this guy is STILL on?

SNL did this clip about Sanjaya. I think it says it all! Oh my, oh my...how long will this guy last?

A Message from Camilla

Thank you, Nada!

What a surprise! Look what was sitting on our porch when we got home...Well, actually, it didn't look exactly like this, it was in a plain brown box. When we opened it, this is what we found. I love the wrapping! It's from Harry and David's. Inside the boxes were pears, apples, mixed nuts, truffles, and cherry candies. YUM! THANK YOU, NADA!!!

Now Nada is Camilla's aunt...she lives in Texas, which in my opinion, gives her a lot of clout! She's a true Texan...so we relate to each other real well. Nada came out here a little while back to be with Camilla and the family...and we had the honor of Nada staying with us. This was my second time to be with Nada. Over 2 years ago, when Camilla was in treatment in San Francisco, Nada came out. She and I ended up driving to San Francisco together and that's when we first met.

I just had to post this picture of the package...and tell Nada THANK YOU!

Memorials to Eskie

Camilla, who by the way is much stronger (I will post on her soon!), wanted me to write more about Eskie. When I told her the post I had written and told her which photo I had put on, she told me I should do more. She also is the author of the title of this post!

Camilla loved Eskie. One thing Camilla loves to do is come over and play games while she sits by the fireplace. Well, Eskie also loved to sit by the fireplace, so it often became a scooting match to see WHO sat DIRECTLY in front of the fire...Camilla usually won. Actually, Rema loves to sit in front of the fire too...it could be a battle!

The night we lost Eskie, Camilla was as sad as anyone. She loved him so much. It was heartwarming to me...Camilla's concern. She was SO incredibly concerned about ME...how I was feeling...how Ron and I and our kids were over losing Eskie. She told me she called Seth...told him about what had happened to me...and how he understood because he had just put his huskie down 2 weeks ago...his name was Brian!

Eskie loved to hide...under the sink, behind dishes, amongst the jam...lots of places! He could open our cabinets...so many mornings I would be running late for school because I spent so much time trying to find Eskie! Sometimes I couldn't figure out HOW in the world he could get somewhere without knocking everything off! Even though I couldn't stand to have him on the counter, I would usually smile at him first, congratulate him on even being ABLE to get up there...then I'd gently put him down and move the stools so he couldn't climb back up...silly me, he would find another way to get up there. I never figured out what exactly he loved about being up there...when he'd NEVER even tried the first 17 years of his life!

Now Eskie also grew to LOVE the toilet....not sure why...we always gave him fresh water - every single day....but he would eat downstairs, ignore the water DIRECTLY next to his food, and saunter upstairs, climb on the toilet, and drink to his hearts content!

Eskie...he was the perfect pet. We miss him.

You've been THE BEST KITTY, Eskie!

We lost Eskie today.

Eskie has been the best...he was my very first kitty...maybe my only. I remember the summer before Lindsey started 3rd grade. She came home with her friend, Katy, and told me how much she wanted this cute kitty. My first answer was an emphatic NO. She begged, she pleaded, she cried...and in the end...we had Eskie.

Gabe, who had told Emily how he didn't like cats, (of course, now they have 3...Smores, Cookie, and Pumpkin) well, Gabe use to dress Eskie up in Lindsey's doll's clothes and he and his buddy, Isaac, would put Eskie in Lindsey's doll stroller and take poor Eskie on a wild ride around the neighborhood. Eskie was always good natured about the whole thing.

He had a great life...and now he's gone...and I'm sad.

Ron and I went to the bay area Friday - Sunday. When we got home, our neighbor John asked us if we had seen how Eskie's face was swollen...we hadn't noticed. So we looked, and it wasn't too bad. Ron took him to the vet today. He had a massive infection that went from his eye to his mouth. Plus...he was severely dehydrated and had kidney failure. I'm not sure how he could tell all that. Eskie also only weighed a little over 5 lbs. We knew he was really thin...but he was nearly 18 years old.

We stayed with him...petted him...told him how much we loved him and would miss him...