ITEM: Pain. On Thursday, August 21st, I went to an oral surgeon and had three teeth removed. One of them will be replaced with a device. I am less concerned about the aesthetics than that, over a week later, I’m still experiencing a great deal of discomfort.
I had been taking hydrocodone-acetamin. The maximum daily dose is six tablets, but they only gave me 12, so it took me about a week before I used them all up. Of course, the trick is that there’s no refill because they don’t want me to become addicted. I’m also taking amoxicillin three times a day for an infection.
Even when I wasn’t eating at all, a degree of discomfort would wake me up every two hours for the first four days. I would take hydrocodone right before going to bed, and then about four hours later, I’d get up and take some Advil.
This made me so tired that I was feeling very emotionally fragile. I’d see stories on the news that would make me weepy. It wasn’t just the latest mass shootings and the fruitless discussions that followed. I’d see a Note To Self about former World Champion pool player Jeanette Lee reflecting on her career journey amid a health battle and get all emotional about not just her scoliosis but the racism and sexism she endured. Usually, that story would make me feel inspired and probably a little ticked off, but no. I’m a puddle. And other stories had the same effect.
Family gathering
ITEM: On Saturday, August 23rd, my wife, daughter, and I were supposed to go to my mother-in-law’s place. My wife’s brother and his wife and their two daughters, living about an hour away, except for the one daughter in NYC, would do the same, except they got there earlier for lunch. My family arrived late, around 2 p.m., because my wife had to work in the morning.
It’s tough to get all these people in the same place simultaneously. We brought the fixings for ice cream sundaes. But less than an hour later, my BIL’s wife got a phone call that her mother was dying, and their family rushed back. Shortly after they arrived, we got word that Rita had died.
I liked Rita O’Leary, who was 87. Until the last couple of years, I would see her a few times a year, including several Mother’s Day dinners at a local restaurant. Her obituary noted: “She leaves behind a legacy of love, acceptance, and kindness that will continue to inspire her family and community.” True enough. Rita is survived by a sister, two daughters, 15 grandchildren, 22 great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren.
Unexpected connection
ITEM: Jean Easton was a woman I was friends with during the early 1980s. She was described as a “lifelong educator, teaching poetry and writing in universities, schools, prisons, and mental health facilities.” I knew her best from the poetry scene. She was brilliant, passionate, and sometimes intense. “You could recognize her regal, determined gait.” Since I worked at a comic book store then, I sometimes talked about comic books with her daughter, Delia. As one sometimes does, I lost track of them.
It wasn’t until Susan Easton from my church choir died in 2022, and Delia attended the funeral, that I figured out that Sue and Al Easton (d. 2024), whom I met in 2000, were Delia’s grandparents and Jean’s former parents-in-law. Though I hadn’t seen Jean in a very long time, her passing made me sad.
ITEM: My father’s first cousin, Ruth Lewis, is the eldest of his first cousins. In August 2024, I saw her and her daughter, Jean, at a concert where my niece Rebecca Jade sang. Ruth’s son and Jean’s twin brother, John, whom I really didn’t know, died on August 19. The funeral was on Friday, August 29, at Trinity AME Zion in Binghamton, the church I grew up in. My condolences to my Walker family relatives.
ITEM: My friend Carla notified me of Rick Lacey’s passing. I knew and liked him at Binghamton Central High School, where he was in my sister Leslie’s graduating class.
