Collage

Collage
My Many Sides

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Happy Birthday Daddy!!!!

Today Daddy would be 84....Happy Birthday Daddy....may you Rest in Peace...Harold Leslie Bibby is his name.

I never got to know my father as a senior citizen, he died when he was only 34.  I always wondered what kind of grandfather he would have been.  I always wondered how he would like the spouses his children chose.  I always wondered what it would have been like to have lived with him the rest of my childhood and have him to filter out the "crappy" men as he used to call the men who were bad.

Daddy was a young man when he became a father, and he was even younger when he went to war.  He became who he was because of the events in his life and these events colored his life at times.  In reality he was a man, not a super hero, or magical person, but to me he was everything I could want as a daddy.  I never got to the "Dad" stage of our relationship, he was still daddy to me when he died.  Even my mother would tell me he was my daddy, not my dad, she said he never got to be anyone's "dad".

He had left Michigan during a financial crises for our family and made his way to California to try to get a job to help us.  It was a bold thing to do in the early 60's and he was criticized for it badly.  He was a Marine who had been trough two wars and and kept fighting his way to support his family.  He loved us all, and yet struggled with the responsibilities that came with being a father of six kids and not having a job.  He did what he had too, and my Mom said that she understood and forgave him for any of the troubles it caused her.
Now that I am a senior citizen I think of all the tragedy that I have endured in my life and wonder how I managed to get here.  I wonder if there would have been less tragedy if Daddy had lived and we grew up in California.  That is just a wonder.

Happy Birthday Daddy....hope you are having a kick ass day with Mom, Rose, Bobby and Billy.......I will love you always.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Monday, February 6, 2012

A Pivotal Moment

Today in 1963 became a pivotal moment for me. My father was killed in an automobile accident on the way to the airport to pick up his whole family for the new life he had prepared for us in California.  Daddy was only 34, yet had served in two wars and was the father of 6 children at his death.

This was in 1956 but there was only 4 of us at this time.


RIP daddy, I will always miss you

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Ooooh Shiny !

I found some of my shiny stones, the ones I had for the settings I have up on Ebay...Now I just have to break the big pictures down to individuals.....that will take some hours of editing.....

Can't set the gemstones anymore, or wire wrap them because of my hands....hope other artist will be able to have fun with them.

Friday, February 3, 2012

Great Expressions

Well today I got rid of some of my pain...I got a quick visit with my dentist at Great Expressions...Dr. Opie, yes that is his name.  He is really great and gentle, plus has a great sense of humor.  His staff is wonderful and I was lucky today that he could help with one of my issues.  He is hoping to get an oral surgeon to pull my one tooth so the abscessed tooth I have been dealing with since Sept. 2011.  Not have health and dental insurance can really create trouble.

Now that my mouth is not so bad, I need to fix up the rest of my body.  We have created a plan for the two of us and hope to put it into action this week.

We are so lucky to have some great people in our lives and look forward to seeing them.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

4 Letter Word

There are a lot of 4 letter words that people consider cursing and the one that I hate the most is PAIN....

The last few days have been full of pain for me and I could really do without it.  I hate Polio...and all of it's pain.  I am not afraid to say that I hate it, it won't make it worse to say so or better...it just is.

Today I could not get up till 12:30pm because my body said no, it had kept me up till 3:30am.  I have not slept in the past few nights and it makes me crabby...really crabby.

Some days I handle with grace and dignity, but today is one of those days I wish I could take a pill and make the pain go away, unfortunately there is no pill for this pain.  The cold and dampness of Michigan is a killer and I hope we can leave and find a better climate, for myself and for Al's pain.

It is been researched that when one member of a marriage is in constant pain, the other member walks away about 65-70%.  When you have two people in non-treatable pain there does not seem to be research to figure it out.

Someday I hope that Al and I can sleep through the night, wake up refreshed and just have a wonderful pain free life.  I have been told by doctors that will only happen when we die.  Me, I am still interested in proving the medical world wrong and retire with my honey and watch beautiful sunsets.