Alice

1949-2010

One morning, in April of this year, my friend Alice Lohr woke up colour blind. She saw lots of doctors and endured many tests. They could find nothing wrong with her eyesight, even though she continued to have other sight-related issues, including difficulties with her peripheral vision and depth perception. Nothing showed up on any tests.

By mid-June she was having tremours, which the doctors thought were related to the prednisone she was taking for an unrelated condition. Things got worse and her mental acuity began to decline rapidly. By the end of the month, she could no longer walk, dress herself, feed herself, speak in sentences or see at all.

On July 7, she was diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. On July 9, she had a feeding tube placed. She was transferred to hospice on July 12. She was attended daily by her husband and many friends the first couple days, until it was decided best to limit visitors due to her deteriorating status. The rate at which she declined was shocking.

Alice passed away peacefully on Sunday afternoon, July 18, with her husband, Barry, at her side.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease is a horrible, nasty thing. There is so very little known about it as of yet. We need to learn more. So far, all we know is that it is untreatable, incurable, and always fatal.

Alice was good people. She has left a huge void in my world and my heart hurts.

Multi-Challenge Friends With Flair

Hey there Friday Peeps! Thanks for all the lovely wishes last week. My finger is doing lots better and I;m adapting to funky tyoing. It;s not perfect, but I;m getting there! If I take it slow, it's much better, but if I let my brain get ahead of my fingers, it starts to look like a two year old did it and it;s pretty funny.

So, you guys know the routine. It;s time to celebrate Unity. To check out everyone participating, hit the Unity blog. Somebody will have a blinkie at the end of their post. Find it and leave a comment and you'll get a chance to win 25 random Unity stamps! With the quality of their deeply-etched red rubber, you want to win those stamps, so go find that blinkie!

Anywho...We;re still unpacking. It's gonna take us a while. But I'm kocating more and more of my supplies daily, many thanks to my daughters. My sons are helping, but they;re complaining greatly. And speaking of sons, today is my eldest's 20th birthday.

This is Cody at 6 months old.

This is Cody today.

Happy Birthday Cody!!!

And now for card stuff. Of course it's Esty Inspired. The shop is Kimmieprout and she sells the neatest handmade buttons. I sort of used this set, with its colours and the heart. And of course the inclusion of the button, which I tied off with embroidery floss. The big colour inspiration came from Color Throwdown's 100th challenge, regal rose, certainly celery, real red and baja breeze. The sketch is Mojo Monday #146.

And for the last of this week's challenges, Pile it On #26 is to use your favourite things. I think I well covered that one! First is my favourite challence, EIC. Then there is Unity stamps, my favourite colour (pickj), Distress inks, and embossing!
Meg, my 16yo, helped me by cutting out the flying heart. The card is for a dear fruend, who, night before last, I found ouyt has Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. I'm hoping she'll be able to feel the textires, since she's ksot msot of her vision already.

So, that's it fro, me today. Too much to do. Here's a pic of our front room as it stands...and all the boxes I have to figure out what to do with. You may now commence laughing.