Betty’s Week

Betty’s Week
By Betty Shearer

It’s son Jim filling in again for mother this week. She’s had another fairly peaceful week all in all. The best news is that she’s had another CA-125 test (for the cancer markers) and her numbers are down significantly, which indicates the chemotherapy is doing its job.
Mother also had another PET scan this week, and by the time you are reading this, she should have information about the extent of the surgery she’s about to undergo to help move this process along. More on that next week, I’m sure.
Friday, she and my Aunt Jimmie were able to drop by the Herald office for a while to catch up with the mail, touch base with David, and take care of some of those pesky proofs of publication. Mother is the only Notary Public in the building, so she’s the only one who can actually sign the things and make them legal.
She said it was really nice to be back in the office for a bit. I know she is missing her “normal” life and the chance to visit with everyone on Main Street in the worst way. Hopefully she’ll be back to her old routine in the near future.
Saturday saw all of the Kilgore brothers and sisters together, along with wives, husbands, various children, and grandchildren. Then on Sunday several of them gathered together again for a Mother’s Day feast. Mother was also invited to a big party at nephew William Cole’s house, but, understandably, she was afraid to go to a large gathering of people with a compromised immune system.
We’re pleased to report that Rance’s wife, Catherine “Ginny” Kilgore is recovering nicely from her very serious aortic aneurism surgery. She’s been able to move about and is making good progress. She’s had some pneumonia, which is not uncommon with this type of emergency surgery, but all in all things seem to be as good as can be expected on that front.
Progress also continues on mother’s house construction project, in spite of all the rain. The bathroom is now fully gutted and waiting on Steve Ford to come over and rebuild everything with a full walk-in shower and all the necessary access bars and such. Life lesson No. 27 in all of this mess is don’t neglect your septic tank until you have to fix it! It’s always better to do some regular maintenance on the front end rather than start doing the math and realize it’s been over 20 years since you had anything done to it. Time does fly…