Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Hodgkin’s Disease. Cancer. My Father
Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Cancer. My dad has been diagnosed with B type Hodgkins Lymphoma and my mind is racing a mile a minute. I just received a phone call from my mother telling me the news, and I can’t quite wrap my mind around what she was telling me.
People that know me and my background know that I don’t often hear from my mother. Seeing their phone number appear on the Caller ID immediately makes me think someone in the family was seriously injured in an accident, is very ill or dead. I haven’t heard from my father since 1995, because I chose to leave the religion I was born into, and the results of that choice were automatic and immediate.
In the eyes of my father and most of my siblings, I died in 1995. All because of my personal decision to leave a religious organization I no longer wanted to be a part of. My mother tends to think of me as being in some sort of coma, hoping that I’ll somehow “come to my senses” and take the required and necessary steps to rejoin the religion.
Doing so would mean I would have been miraculously “resurrected from the dead”, where family members and old friends (who haven’t spoken to me since 1995) would suddenly welcome me back with open arms. Not gonna happen. Ever.
My parents live in Dallas, which is only about a 30-minute drive from our house. Having family members living in such close proximity to our house, but rarely hearing from or seeing any of them, is something I’ve never quite gotten used to. The wounds from the past run very deep, and try as I may to “forgive and forget” everything that happened, forgiving and moving on is easier than the ability to actually forget.
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“Deaths occur in threes. If one person in your family dies, two more will within a short period of time.” Do deaths come in threes or is it just an old wives tale? There’s been a lot of discussion in the last few days that deaths always happen in threes or celebrity deaths come in threes, and questions about where the “deaths come in 3” tale came from.
OK! Magazine has sunk to a new low. OK Magazine paid $500000 for a cover “death photo” of Michael Jackson on a stretcher, as emergency personnel tried to revive the dying star, which has created quite a controversy amongst Michael Jackson fans, the pathetic magazine’s advertisers and the music community.
I’ve been paying close attention to the Swine Flu school closings in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, especially since I live in 
What do I know about being a Grandma? As a grandparent, do I have visitation rights to see my grandchildren? I’m not so sure anymore. Until recently, I had no idea that getting to see my grandson, living out of state, would be next to impossible with current laws being as they are. What visitation rights do grandparents have, if any?
, to find out what (if any) rights of grandparents there are, in order to get visitation rights to see my grandson living in Illinois. Apparently, there is no such thing as “grandparents rights”, as Illinois law refers to grandparent visitation as a “privilege”, not a right.
Jennifer Hudson’s 51st Grammy performance of “You Pulled Me Through” brought tears to Jennifer’s eyes and to many of us who saw Jennifer’s amazing performance. Jennifer Hudson won a well-deserved Grammy for best R&B Album of the year, and in her acceptance speech, Jennifer spoke with love and appreciation to everyone she has loved and those she’s lost.
In Long Island, New York, a 34-year-old WalMart employee of the Valley Stream store was 
Yes, you CAN quit smoking cigarettes and stop smoking for good. You can quit smoking today, right now at this very minute. The 
” with very good success rates. Many smokers have achieved success in quitting smoking with the help of the 
, with once-skeptical smokers discovering they were able to quit smoking once and for all, after being unable to quit with other methods.
. Nicotine replacement therapy (NRTs) include stop smoking products like nicotine gum, the nicotine inhaler/nasal spray, nicotine lozenges and nicotine patches. NRTs contain nicotine and can be addictive themselves, but if you follow the manufacturer’s directions carefully to wean yourself off the chosen NRT, this can be a safe and comfortable way to put an end to your smoking addiction.
