How Quickly Time Passes

Time. It runs at different times depending on where in your life you are at any given moment. When you're a baby you can't wait to get up and walk on your own two feet. From then on it's all just waiting for that next turn of the clock. How soon can I go to school, when can I stay up later than my current bedtime. When is summer going to get here? I can't wait for Christmas. It seems like we spend our entire lives waiting for the next chapter. But what happens when your chapters are at an end.

Eventually, time runs out and life as you know it changes. It usually happens subtly. Somewhat like someone whispering in your ear. You wake up one day and see the first wrinkle or the first gray hair. I found both of mine at the same time. I had been in a physically abusive relationship before the idea of safe houses existed. I had a safe house to go to but it was only by chance that the abuser had no way of finding me.

It took me many years before I was ready to face the fact that I was indeed getting old. My hair was more gray than blonde, more gone than not, and I decided that I was going to dye this hot mess into something unique. I bought the brightest red hair dye I could find and colored my hair with it. My husband came home and nearly fainted.

Of course, it wasn't my first dye job nor will it be my last but it was the first experiment with an odd color.

When my friends, Honey, and Michael, came to see me this summer, they thought it was "really red". I didn't care it was fun.

When Honey and Michael were on they're way home, Honey, who is addicted to Starbuck's stopped at one in Albuquerque and tripped on a rug going out the door. She managed to break her left hip and leg in the process. Since they live in California and she was in New Mexico at the time, Michael had to leave her behind at the hospital and continue on home.

Honey called me in a panic a few days after she'd been in the hospital and told me, "I'm being held hostage in a small room. They won't let me get up and they have me strapped down." She also told me she had a guard. I told her to let me speak to the "guard". Her "guard" who in real life is a nurses aide, told me that Honey was under some very heavy pain killers and was trying to stand up and take her out as well as her various tubes and hoses. Since one was a catheter, I for one am glad she wasn't able to pull them out. Lance and I left that morning for Albuquerque.

Six hours later we got to the hospital. Honey was so glad to see us and had to tell me all about the fairy's that planted flowers in the hallway that turned out to be weeds and that she and I needed to go pick them. There were other moments of nonsense but that one is the one I remember. It's a memory I'll treasure. Much like all of the other memories I have of our time together.

Time is running at a gallop for Honey. While she was in the hospital, she was diagnosed with renal cell bone marrow cancer. She had one of her kidney's removed a few months ago. It had a ten pound encapsulated tumor encased in it. Her doctor assured her that he got it all but doctors are after all human and they like all of us make mistakes.

They kept her in Albuquerque until it was safe for her to fly home alone. Honey has stage four cancer. There is no cure, chemotherapy will only give her a little more time. But when a little time is all you have left go ahead and do everything and anything you want. Honey wanted to show me that she too could be a little bit wild. She went right home, cut her hair short and colored it green with jello and aluminum foil.

I was impressed. I'm now looking at new ways to shock my poor husband into next week. Maybe I'll try some of that blue jello.......



Have a joy filled day, and if you find some time maybe say a prayer for my friend Honey.


Til next time,

Deb