LAFOLOT

SUNSET & EVENING Star – I was showing my mom the beautiful sunset outside her Rehab/Hospice room window last evening. She said: ‘Sunset and Morning Star … a good time to die’ … I searched the words on the net and found this Alfred, Lord Tennyson poem. I think this is what she was referencing.

Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,
But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;
For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar.

MEMORIZED Childhood memories carry with us into our twilight years. I’ve found this when doing laughter wellness programs for dimentia units. I just focus on their MEMORIZED Childhood rhymes and they ‘flow and glow’ right along with me! NO STRESS!

A doctor told my mom she had 3 hours to 3 days to live, A YEAR AND A MONTH ago. Gotta laugh! It all worked out, because she was clearheaded and able to make all her requests and plans – one being that she go into Hospice. She tends to ask – what am I doing in here? When I refresh her memory – we have a good chuckle over DOCTORS! *What do THEY know! EveryBODY doesn’t follow what is ‘BOOK-LEARNED’. LOL!

She can chuckle, because she was a nurse trained around World War 2. A tough cookie, with a sense of humor, who always wanted to be the next Shirley Temple! She always talked about the fact that ‘others would stay away’ from the hospital residents that were dying … but she chose to sit with them. She wasn’t afraid of death.

So it’s easy to visit, because she knows and feels death is a part of life – and in the end – you JUST GOTTA LAUGH at the way it flirts with you and says … nope – NOT YET! … you’ve got another SUNSET!

Ha Ha Helen of LAFOLOT.com
Outlook Shift Engineer! Hear! Here!
… looking at LIFE and DEATH … as ALL A PART OF LIFE! … same thing … just like the tides … in and out …a process…

I think we need to find a LESS MESSY way to BIRTH into this world and MAKE OUR STAGE EXIT … maybe if we put the question out on Facebook? *ba dump bump …

I chose to have a day of GRATITUDE!
I stated, recently, “I need to move forward in the alphabet and move from ‘F’ear to ‘Gratitude’ resulting in ‘H’appiness … ‘I’ say!”

Well! it’s been hellish dealing with family challenges these last 2 and 1/2 years (and prior – but it’s all growth opportunity!). The past two years, my brain damaged sister Dolly (hit by a drunk driver at age 19 – now 63) started to fail. I became her Power of Atty and worked with other family members – dealing with hospitals, vacating an apartment she had (what a mess), more hospitals, doctors, social workers, etc etc etc. Then my mom – the last 8 years – but more recently – failing fast. The last month – hospitals, rehab, vacating an apartment, moving her to assisted living, back in the hospital, rehab, hospital and now hospice. Now, vacating both the apartment (finalizing that) and vacating the assisted living. WHEN WILL IT STOP!? Is what you want to scream at times – but you keep on going!

Thank God for my 12 Step Program background, one on one and group counseling, self-help and Ah! Ha! moments! GRATITUDE and recognition of growth amidst it all is a blessing.

Well, while walking out of my mom’s apartment where I had just finished helping my younger sister finalize the cleaning. I was walking across the parking lot and this is what I saw! LIVE LIFE! LAUGH OFTEN! (www.LAFOLOT.com) on the back of a BIG, SHINY, NEW, YELLOW PICK-UP TRUCK parked next to space number 21! (that’s my birthday in February).

LAFOLOT Bumper Display

Moments before, I ran into a resident at the Assisted Living building. I complimented her on her RED jacket, telling her it was HER COLOR! She said: When’s your birthday? I said: the 21st of next month. She said: Mine’s the 22nd! George Washington’s Birthday! WHAT A COINCIDENCE!
Was an ANGEL sent to put a smile on my face?

Then to see the bright, black and yellow magnetic bumper display for my motto and business on the bright yellow truck! WHAT A GIFT!

WHY? Because I had taken it off my mom’s refrigerator and placed it in the low income apartment housing’s social room for WHOEVER to take. I figured it would end up on someone’s refrigerator – not giving me advertising – but at least making someone happy.

WELL! I COULD HAVE CRIED TEARS OF JOY! It’s been tough – letting go EARLY of a very lucrative State Government job due to stress of dealing with my sister’s needs. It’s been tough trying to get my business off the ground.

Then, to see where my business advertising bumper display had ended up!

I have to shake my head in AH! MAZE-MENT! It’s truly a W.O.W.!!! World of Wonder!

BIG THANK YOU OF GRATITUDE for whoever is ‘looking out for me out there.’

Highlighted Ha Ha Helen Szollosy of LAFOLOT.com
SPEECHLESS
LIVE LIFE! LAUGH OFTEN!

Still DRIVING MYSELF HAPPY! with my new campaign! [Drive Youself Happy!]

I see so many UNFOCUSED people on the road, on cell phones, texting, exhausted and sitting at traffic lights with a ‘far off’ look –

I have an oldest sister who was hit by an ‘unfocused’ drunk driver when she was 20 and she is now 62 – having ‘survived’ and having to ‘learn to LIVE with front left lobe brain damage.

Put your cell phone, etc. on mute and toss it in the back seat of your car where you can’t get to it while driving.

Help others to stay focused on the vehicle in front of them by checking out the license plate in front of them in traffic; as well as at stop lights.

For example:

While pulling into a shopping plaza parking lot – the license plate on the car in front of me was ….

*drum roll (just put the rim shot in after you read this)

PMS-RN

OK – so does this mean to STAY CLEAR because this nurse is prone to emotional explosions? – - or that this nurse will help those in the middle of an emergency emotional explosion –

OH! Maybe this nurse makes house calls or roadside emergencies for emotional explosions!? (my mom had two cute, attentive male nurses at an Emergency Room visit last Tuesday – so I wouldn’t have minded a cute, male nurse helping me out when I –

would make a Mount Saint Helen’s Explosion fool of myself with my PMS moments!

Thank God this nurse advertises! You never know when you’ll need a PMS RN!

Nurses – they GIVE, AND THEY GIVE AND THEY GIVE!

(After that one, the next plate I saw was: HHA (HAHA :O) ) and after that I saw: DDY (Daddy?) – *SMILE – my Dad is the one that got me STARTED on this license plate word game when I was younger- so that was a nice memory).

DRIVING MYSELF HAPPY! and staying focused on the car in front of me.

Ha Ha Helen Szollosy of Lafolot
www.lafolot.com
[Check out some license plates to help keep your eyes focused on the car in front of you. ;o) Drive safely and happily! Join my DRIVE YOURSELF HAPPY! campaign!] … no cost and no paperwork!

[this blog can also be seen at VIBRANT NATION by: Helenoflafolot]