A source of pride we never expected to experience

I mentioned in my last post that Dina and family had gone to Disney World for a few days. What I did not mention is why they took this trip at this particular time.

For the past couple of years, Dina has been running in marathons of increasing length, and last Sunday she ran her first ½ marathon – which is 13.1 miles. The marathon she and her friend Marissa, who lives in Jacksonville, Florida, selected was the Disney Princess Half Marathon, which was held at Disney World in Florida.

Disney Princess Half Marathon

Along with many other runners, our two gals fully embraced the Disney princess spirit, choosing “princess” themed outfits for the race.

Place	Name	Bib	Age	Div Place	Gender Place	5k Split	10k Split	15k Split	Clock Time	Net Time	Hometown
6536	DINA SAKS	15248	39	860	5171	36:27	1:17:10	1:57:46	3:54:14	2:49:30	SHARON, MA

Although Barry has been fitness walking on and off for many years, neither of us could have ever imagined ourselves or our offspring taking on such a challenge. I admit it took me a while to fully appreciate the determination and focus required to prepare for such an event. The only disappointment is that I was not healthy enough to be there in person, but Dina did her best to make us feel part of the experience using her cell phone. Of course, with something like 17,000 runners and all of the spectators trying to use mobile devices, the connections were far from perfect, but she surprised us and used her cell phone to allow us to “run with her” for a short while before we lost the connection, and that just meant the world to Barry and me.

Dina, we are so proud of you – “in awe” would not be too strong an expression. May you continue to be in good health to accomplish all of your goals!

Love,

Rebecca

Family Time

We were blessed last week to have some time with each of our grandchildren. Of course, our activities were somewhat restricted by my continued health limitations, but we had some good quality time in our apartment and even managed to get out a couple of times.

We drove up to Sharon on Sunday and got ourselves settled. On Monday we got together with Joshua with a main goal of going through the annual baseball card collection. In the past this was just an activity for Joshua and Barry but they let me help out this time.

Then we watched the NBA all star game (which we had taped for this purpose), and played a couple of games of Rummikub which Joshua always wins!

On Monday evening we did something we have not done in a very, very long time (maybe since before our daughters were both married) – just the four of us went out to dinner together. It was really such a special time to have together and we promised ourselves not to wait another twenty years to do it again!

We spent Tuesday morning with Ella and, in the afternoon, Julia came over along with Eliana to play games and work on a jigsaw puzzle we had bought for her.

Wednesday morning, Noah came over to play, with Eliana along as well. He has the attention span of a typical two-year-old so we jumped from one activity to another but everyone had lots of tun.

That afternoon, we squeezed the three older children in the back seat of our car and went to a local movie theater to see “A Dog’s Way Home.” The theater where it was playing is set up like a café where they show movies. This started as an activity for Maya, who loves movies about dogs, but the other girls decided to come along with us. After the movie, as if no one had ingested quite enough sugar during the movie, we stopped for ice cream.

Dina and family left for Florida on Thursday, and I will write more about that on my next post.

Meanwhile, on Thursday Barry went with Eliana to see “Lego Movie 2,” which Eliana thoroughly enjoyed, while Maya and I spent some quiet time, including working on one of the science kits we had somehow never put together from a couple of years ago.

Simmie, Ronen, Maya, and a friend came over for Shabbat lunch and spent the afternoon while Eliana went to the home of a friend. Then on Sunday we made our way back to New York.

I am still in recovery mode from the very busy week. But I have already compiled my pictures (not as many as I used to take, but hopefully enough) and am just about finished with a photo book for the week.

Stay well and keep warm!

Love,

Rebecca

Good news is always welcome

MSKCC had scheduled me for a follow-up CT scan on Tuesday at 11:20 am. We knew there was snow scheduled to move in on Tuesday and were concerned, but at the same time we really did not want to postpone the test. When we left our house, it was snowing lightly.

For this test, the patient has to drink a large bottle of fluid containing a contrast dye before doing the scan, so the entire process takes at least an hour and a half. While I was sitting there, I suddenly heard a familiar voice, and looked up to see someone I know from in Riverdale. I knew that this person was also undergoing cancer treatment, and we chatted briefly before I was called in for the test. It really is a small world!

By the time we left the facility, it was snowing rather heavily. Although the main roads were still not in too bad shape, when we got off the highway a few blocks from our house the situation was much more challenging. Barry pulled into our driveway, put the car in park, and applied the parking break before getting out to help me into the house, but the car actually continued to slide a bit down the driveway. Fortunately, we had a garbage can sitting in front of the garage door or we might well have crashed right through it! At that point we just left the car and went inside. The temperatures rose enough overnight to soften the ice and we were able to get where we needed to be on Wednesday morning: Barry to his class and me to my treatment at MSKCC.

And the scan? We heard from Dr. Iyer’s office on Thursday afternoon that the scan looked good, showing no evidence of metastatic disease! I am not sure it would have been worth demolishing our car or garage over this but I am glad it all went well.

We are planning to go up to Sharon next week for the first time since the end of December. I am still weak but we are hoping to spend time with our grandchildren just one or two at a time, and that may well be the best therapy there is!

Stay warm and healthy!

Love,

Rebecca

Name changing

Our granddaughter Eliana mentioned in one of her posts on our family Vlog that she has been asking her friends to call her “Ellie,” and most of them are now using that shortened version of her name.

This reminded me of an issue I had with my own name many years ago. As a girl growing up in the Midwest, my full name, Rebecca, was rarely used. My family called me “Rebbie,” probably to some extent since I had a younger sister, Deborah, who was and is called “Debbie.” But teachers and hence friends in school simply took the liberty of calling me the common nickname for Rebecca, “Becky.” I never really liked Becky, at least in some part because my maiden name was Belkin and I always thought that Becky Belkin was a fairly unattractive name.

Not long after Barry and I started dating seriously, this topic came up in conversation and I shared with him the fact that I had never really liked being called “Becky.” Dating someone named Barry just added to the Becky issue – Becky and Barry sounded as silly to me as Becky Belkin! Barry started calling me Rebecca and after a short while everyone else followed suit.

I do not know whether “Ellie” will stick or she will go back to Eliana. I just hope that one day she will meet someone who will call her whatever she wants to be called and influence everyone else to do the same.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Love,

Rebecca

The Favourite

The new movie, “The Favourite” features Olivia Colman as Queen Anne, Emma Stone as Abigail Hill, and Rachel Weisz as Sarah Churchill. A.O. Scott’s New York Times review provides a nice simple summary of the film, which weaves a complicated tale:

In January 1711, Queen Anne, the last Stuart monarch to occupy the British throne, appointed a former chambermaid named Abigail Hill to be Keeper of the Privy Purse, thus decisively reversing the fortunes of Sarah Churchill, the Duchess of Marlborough, who had previously been among the queen’s most trusted advisers.

"The Favourite” compellingly represents the rivalry between two very strong-willed women for the attention and affection of Queen Anne. The film also provides an excellent feel for life in the British royal court in the early 1700s, with all the elaborate clothing, make-up and hair styles worn by both men and women. I have to admit that I did not always understand exactly what was going on in the story, so I was not sure whether I appreciated it. But looking back on it a few hours later I realize that I emerged with a very definite overall feeling of the characters and the lives they lived so many years ago, which made it an enjoyable period piece.

Speaking of period pieces, Simmie and Dina and their hubbies went to a 40^th birthday party for a friend at which the guests were encouraged to dress and bring party favors reminiscent of the 1980s. I could not resist sharing a few pictures here.

Ronen’s wig is reminiscent of the ones worn by the British royalty in the 18^th century.

At least the bitter cold has passed for a bit. Stay warn and dry and healthy!

Love,

Rebecca

Little by little, day by day

Little by little, day by day, I am feeling cautiously optimistic that my health may continue to improve. But I cannot say it has been easy, and I feel as if I am spending nearly all of my time and energy engaged in the care of my pulmonary disease.

Having said that, on Sunday we went out to see a movie for the first time in many weeks. I did not want to see anything too heavy so we chose “On the Basis of Sex,” which traces the early career of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. To be honest, I do not have the energy to read much about this, but I have a feeling that there were many inaccuracies in the story as it was told, and I can see there are many articles on just that topic. It was a fair movie, somewhat entertaining, but I cannot recommend it particularly highly.

On a much more upbeat note, we have engaged our grandchildren in starting a Vlog (video blog). So far most of them have posted on this, and over the weekend Barry and I finally figured out how to do it ourselves and posted our comments on everything they had done. The posts vary from Joshua describing a rather odd snack he likes that involves a veggie burger sandwiched between two waffles, to Eliana talking in great detail about all sorts of things she has done at school. Yesterday Ella played a piano piece (she recently began taking lessons). Julia seems to be quite a natural in front of the camera, chatting about things she has been doing. We are hoping to encourage them to post on a regular basis.

Have a good week and stay warm!

Love,

Rebecca

A tough couple of weeks

  

It has been over two weeks since I last wrote. Unfortunately, it has been a rather difficult period: Barry and I have both been infected with a metapneumovirus. Because of my underlying pulmonary condition, I guess it is fair to see that it has been somewhat more stressful for me, but it has not been a day at the beach for him, either. I was hospitalized for a couple of days but we wanted to get back home before the storm (which fortunately did not hit particularly hard here). It is still not completely resolved, and I am now waiting for some additional equipment to help with the breathing.

I had a big and wonderful surprise on Friday morning when Simmie and Dina drove to New York to spend a few hours with us at the hospital. I cannot even begin to say how much this meant to Barry and me.

We had been planning to be up in Sharon this weekend to see Joshua play two basketball games. The M-Cats lost the first game by a couple of points in overtime. We just learned that the second game, scheduled for this afternoon, was cancelled due to the weather.

It goes without saying that we appreciate all good healthy thoughts you can send our way.

Love,

Rebecca