Afternoons With Deadwood Dick & Rattlesnake Pete

So my father, my real father, now lives in a nursing home which is a long story I’ll maybe tell another time. Being as he is a writer and is always creating characters in his mind, he apparently spends his days  creating personas for the various residents whom he encounters on a daily basis. Enter Deadwood Dick, the skinny man in the wheelchair who wears brown pants, a red collared, western style shirt, and a straw cowboy hat. This character wheels up to my father’s room every 20 minutes or so, stops, grabs the door frame, and uses it to projectile his wheelchair down the hallway towards who knows what causing my father to call out every time, “There’s Deadwood Dick!” 

Then there is the elderly wheelchair speed racer who zooms by periodically, with a bit of a blank stare which my father describes as a “sideways glance that he manipulates in order to sneak a peek at the ladies.” This one is Rattlesnake Pete. The “ladies” are the smiley face lady who continually rolls by with a grin on her face yet not a clue where she is or what she is doing, and the gray haired woman with the glasses who told my sister that she knew our mother and that they went back 20 years or so (my sister has no idea who this person is,nor would our mother if she were still alive). 

Dad kept us laughing the whole time as he described these “characters” and what he imagined they were up to. I’m really not sure if he was writing the story in jest, or if he truly believes what he was saying to be true! He may be on to something, though, for when I walked down the hallway to use the restroom, Rattlesnake Pete flashed me a smile and said, “Hi!” I smiled back and greeted him, but I quickly walked away. Maybe he does have a thing for the ladies! 

Old fears have a way of finding you.

 I haven’t written in this blog since 2020. Actually, I forgot about it. Been too busy with work, life, etc. I’d actually been thinking about starting to write in it again about topics that might get me some notice for possible publication down the road as an educator, such as topics about parenting or teaching. But then I received an out-of-nowhere wake-up call and reminder that I am a cancer survivor… or am I? Seems I have a nodule in a lung that was found during a scan for kidney stones, of all things. I haven’t seen an oncologist since 2015 (I think) as I thought I was cured of the disease that sidelined my life 21 years ago and didn’t need to as I was healed back then…miraculously healed.

 I don’t want to type all of that right now because it’s a lot and I’m not wanting to type a lot right now. I don’t want to relive it either. All signs are pointing to this nodule being benign and nothing serious, and I have to trust the Lord that I am still healed of the beast that tends to rear its ugly head now and then to try to scare me and torment me into thinking it has returned. But it has NOT. 

This is not cancer. This is a reminder to take care of my body and to trust in Him for all things. 

Addendum………

I don’t have cancer! False alarm.