Christmas Day 2024
The date was 12/25/2024. Yes, Christmas Day. As a day in Florida it was remarkably average. No bright sunshine, no extreme heat or humidity and very few RV guests in the RV Park (Sunkissed) we’re living in. Our lives have changed so dramatically over the last 12-months.
Presently I’m sleeping in my recliner and Carla, unfortunately, has taken up residence in her hospital bed in our front room, thanks to Hospice, as a result of her battle with cancer. The last 3-months have been particularly difficult for her. Her bone cancer metastasized to her liver, which controls many of the bodies motor functions. One of her doctors back then, had answered her question, as we were viewing a scan of her liver; How Long do I have? She was not looking for a sugar-coated answer, and the Doctor realized that. He said,” quite frankly you’ll see 2025 but it’s doubtful on how much longer. “How difficult is is to wake up and try to wish each other a Merry Christmas under these circumstances. After all, it’s something we’ve been doing for 35-years. But, none-the-less, we say the words. Carla, at this stage, was restricted to either laying flat on her back, or with some help, laying on her side.We had barely opened a gift or two, when, as expected, the Ozdarski family called to wish us a Merry Christmas. It was a very typical phone call that the Ozdarsky’s make on birthdays as well. Carla tried very much to keep up with the conversations, but the last 3-weeks she’d been finding it easier to stay with 2-3 word sentences, today would not be any different.
After a few minutes I could see Carla was getting tired of trying to keep up with all that was being said, so she said our good-byes. I had barely hung up the phone when Carla asked if she could take a short nap, which was not uncommon.
Carla sleeps Christmas Afternoon
In the meantime, I busied myself by moving the small amount of gifts to under the tree and to the sides of the room to help foot traffic. Without realizing it the time had gotten to be around 3pm, but all was well, Carla was sleeping calmly. It was just then that she began to stir a little so I went over to her to help in any way I could. To my surprise she opened her eyes and for the first time in months they were bright and shiny, I could not believe how pretty and rested she looked. Within a few seconds she called me over closer. I could tell she was going to ask for something. She began to speak and immediately said how much she loved me, and I casually replied back how much I loved her too. She continued; I can see and hear all that you are doing for me and I want to thank you for all your work. Not letting me slip in a word or two, she continued. You’ve done so much for me and I appreciate it so much. You’ve even moved in next to me, thank you. I was going to interject and word or two, but she continued.
“Right now I must close my eyes, I love you, and she closed her eyes. I was concerned. It’s been months since I’ve seen her so bright eyed. And surprisingly her voice was clear and not gargled as it had been for the past few weeks. And then I remembered her words; I must close my eyes. In all our 35-years, I have never heard her use those words; “Right now I must close my eyes”. Her talk to me was short, organized and right to the point. I began to think again about the tone of her voice, very sharp and clear. For someone who, for 3-weeks was having difficulty describing how she felt, or if she wanted water, I began thinking what exactly might have just happen here. Knowing Carla, it was as though she had a discussion with, let’s say Michael the Archangel (who delivers the dead) and she ask him for just one minute to say good bye. Sounds like she might have won. Her word structure and looks gave me the impression that she had moved out of the claws of cancer for that one minute, so she could give her final good-bye to me. What I did not expect was that she would close her eyes this Christmas Day and never re-open them again. How emotionally hard that was to know she was in her body and all the caretakers were saying she can hear all that is going on but she is trapped in her coma.
Continuously caring for Carla, most times on my, own thanks to the hapless Hospice company I contracted with, I had so much time to think and pray. She was working so hard to breath, making that deathly gasping sound. At times I could help her a bit, by repositioning her body but the last 2-days she just would not cooperate. In desperation, as in so many other times, I called the after-hours hospice line she told me I’d probably done all I could, and the end may be near. This was such a lousy dilemma to be in. If I truly wanted her to live, which I did, she would exist as a breathing body only. On the other hand I reluctantly felt this may be a good time to separate the time she has left with ore prayers, something I’ve accepted, will not be an option in my last days.
s I have mentioned in the past family deaths seem to hover in the neighborhoods of other occasions, like birthdays, holidays and even holydays. My mom died July 3rd whereas my father died on March 23; the day after my mothers birthday. Dennis, as we’ve seen died a couple of days after his own birthday. Carla passed away consciously on Christmas but physically left the earth on New Years day. There were a couple of other death dates, but I’ve gone far enough. You can see where I might me getting a little excited with my birthday approaching. In the recent couple of months I’ve been given a clean bill of health, so I expect my birthday will be uneventful. Tomorrow I have a appointment with hospice. No, Not what you think. I’m applying as a volunteer. It’s been over 10-years since I’ve been on the clock, but I’m going to try it part time to begin with and see what happens. I’ve mentioned this before, but I don’t mind restating; Carla and I were a perfect for each of us. I will admit I did get the best part of the deal. I never expected to be married again and be so happy, and that was mostly thanks to Carla.
I pray each day for guidance. There is no doubt in my mind that HE has a plan and my being around is probably key for His plan to come to fruition, so I sit around and wait. Tomorrow Scoots goes to the vet for a check-up. I’m a little apprehensive, only hope she’s lost a pound or two since her last visit. Yesterday I ordered a carpet to try to make this home I’m living look more like a home than a motel room. Very much like the area rugs we had in the Suncruiser Coach back in the day, except it’s a 6×10 not 2×6.Picture to the left was taken in August 2021. Amazing how much the world can change in just 4-years.
very simple tasks to face each day; mainly Doctors. We did visit Carla’s cousin Connie a couple of years ago and she mentioned she’d taken up a new hobby; diamond painting. I know, the name sounds like a very expensive hobby, but no. It basically consists of a mat with very little color in it but lot and lots of paint by number. In place of paints and filling in large areas on a mat, you make use of colored dots. Each dot number on the unfinished mat corresponds to a colored dot or bead, a better way of describing them. It’s not difficult but it is painstakingly tedious. each square inch of mat you see in the picture consists of 64 or more beads of different colors. To see how intense this hobby is, take your thumb and index finger and place them in the center of the picture and expand the picture size. Something else, hun! Carla is working on her second project except instead of the beads being square they’re round. I know, you’re saying “so what!” Square beads must be placed perfectly square in each receptive bead spot or it might not look as nice as it should. The round beads, fitting in round holes go in imperfectly with very little difficulty, cutting down the amount of time this project should take. If you have an interest in this, possibly, give Carla a call to learn more.
As you can see, just as in the Journey, all our rooms are tightly nestled together. The bottom left-hand corner of the picture is the edge of our living room with new TV and to the right is our dining room, or as in the RV our universal table. Needless to say, many of these cabinets extend too high for us to reach without a step stool. 
There’s not much else left to talk about except for the bedroom. In the picture below you can see we have a ten-foot twin-closet area with storage draws in the center as well as below the mirrored closets. In the Journey we had a King-size bed, which, quite frankly, was overkill for what we needed, although Carla really liked the size very much. 
This experience and the added bonus of having President Dan and Miss Aimee give us sharing their valuable time with Carla and I this day will be an event I’ll remember for years to come. This was definitely a very rare opportunity to view the many changes that have taken place since I graduated in “62. 
Mom and Dad, Abby and Michael, deliver a beautiful baby girl into the world.
Awesome! Doesn’t this look like a brand new coach? Well, almost brand new.
After resolving the tire problem we heard from Sam the Painter. Sam will be repainting the full cap over the front windshield. His problem is that he’s stuck in Georgia doing a big RV repaint job and it is raining every day. Sam is on hold until his schedule eases up. It should get done by May.
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After Mass we went out for lunch at a Mexican restaurant. I was a little leery about the menu but my meal was excellent. When we got back to Mary Ann’s she told us of her new toy; an electric trike. We both fell in love with it.
She loves it and so did we. Both Carla and I had the opportunity to test it out. Reluctantly after a good ride I did bring it back to her. This is not a toy, it can reach speeds of up to fifteen miles per hour. On top of that, in Port Orange, she can use it both on the roads and on the sidewalk. I would not take it on I-95 however.
10.18.18- I write this blog on Maggie Valley with mixed feelings. Those who know me know that I have always had a very strong affection for Littleton, NH. Long story short, it will always be tops on my list. Next would, most likely be the New London, CT area. Not that we had lived in NL, but not that far away. Carla and I spent many weekends at Crocker’s Boatyard on our boat. Thirdly I had placed Maggie Valley in that spot. It too has many memories, especially of our weekends spent in our cabin up there. We’ve been back tor or three times over the last five years,
but this time I’ve been having mixed feelings on this beautiful piece of America. As you can see from the pictures the valley is surrounded by the Great Smoky Mountains.
Always liked this shot of Co
bbler’s Cabin.
Back to my mixed feelings. As you’ll see in some of the pictures to follow, Maggie Valley does not have an actual downtown, never realized that before. Waynesville, on the other hand has a very definitive downtown, but like MV is inundated with strip shopping centers. Not sure if I could keep myself busy if we were full-time residents of MV; especially in the winter months. Almost think I would have to be involved in a local business to make the time go by. Definitely not working for someone else, I don’t do well with that. Many log cabins like you see above dot the mountain sides. Best to see them in the evening with the glow of their lights and the sight of smoke coming from so many fireplaces.
Ingle’s above is to MV and NC as Publix is to Florida and Stop and Shop is to Mass. The store, inside, is so beautiful, almost makes it a destination.
We still have difficulty in passing up an ice cream shop. We’ve been in here before but never realized they serve “Blue Bell” ice cream and it was so good. Not only that, a steal at two sugar cones for $3.49.
Yesterday we ventured away from the coach, got our ice cream then decided to try to find a cabin we almost bought before Cobbler’s. It was a very narrow road which was, as with most mountain roadways, very steep. I was just telling Carla, hope no one is coming down the mountain. Within ten seconds pops up a van. We slid over to the side as far as we could and he likewise was way over on the right side. We passed by each other with inches to spare. This is not atypical. A four-wheel drive vehicle, for us, would have been more beneficial. As you might have suspected we sadly could not locate that log home. On our way back down the mountain we came across a Llama farm; never thought I’d see that in MV. At the bottom of the mountain was a Christmas Tree Farm. Thousands of trees. Christmas trees are a big business in MV and NC in general. 
and very original. Please take a couple of minutes and click on the link below the picture she created for us , and check out her portfolio of artwork. I call this beautiful painting “Creation,” I don’t know if she might have her own name for it. I realize it is a little difficult to appreciate it’s full beauty but if it had been a typical 16 by 20 you would be looking at a “sea scene” blanketed with ominous stormy clouds typical of what earth might have looked like after HE had finished creating the worlds oceans. I would only hope that she might re-create this production as a full picture as opposed to the letter “G” portrait.