November 13, 2016

November 13, 2016.

Dad's 83rd birthday.
Birthdays really aren't all that important.  It just marks the passing of another year.  But it's a time to remember.

What a treat for me to be in his hometown this weekend.  I don't know what time of day Dad was born, but it was a still, brisk, beautiful morning for me on Sunday, as I took a walk down the quiet streets of his hometown wondering what life was like 83 years ago on this very day. 

Dad lived most of his growing up years in this house, to be sure.  He wasn't born in this house, but in a previous house that was built on this same property that belonged to my grandparents.

It was good to see it with signs of life again.  Bikes on the porch, a dog barking in the yard, a swimming pool out back.

I continued on to the town cemetery.  Out to our family plot.
 

And then back 700 miles away to Dad's earthly memorial in our church cemetery on a different fall morning....

We even ate Dad's favorite kind of cake on his birthday:  Yellow cake with chocolate icing!

Remembering my dad, thankful for his impact in my life and the legacy he leaves.

A Year Ago

I was up early on this Saturday morning one year ago, too.  Being with my dad as he left his earthly "tent" and entered into eternal glory with Jesus Christ.  

At various times this week,  I've thought about last year at this time.   When I see the roses and peonies blooming, when there's graduation ceremonies, and especially last night: Mom,  my brother Larry and I were together awaiting a different kind of homecoming: my daughter Emily arriving home from Europe.  We were together last year on that Friday night as well,  praying and singing Dad into heaven: a homegoing.

Another milestone:  the first year without Dad.  God's grace alone allows us one step at a time.  

               Memorial Day, May 2016

The Golden Bear

In that place between wakefulness and sleep, I looked up from the face of my niece's newborn baby and saw Dad walking toward me.  He was holding his two year old great-grandson, with ease and competence, the same way I've seen him carry my own children when they were small.  I was cradling another bundle of joy in my arms, Dad's tiny new great-granddaughter!  As Dad approached with a smile on his face---true happiness at having not just one, but now TWO great-grandchildren, which in this life, he never knew existed, but would have loved dearly---I saw he was sporting a familiar shirt. He wore that golfing shirt until it was threadbare: white polo with maroon stripes and the tiny "Jack Nicklaus" Golden Bear emblem sewn onto the pocket.

We used to tease him about being the "Golden Bear" in his golfing days.  It makes me smile to think of how he'd laugh as we joked together.

The next chance I got, I looked for that shirt.  It was in the trash can.  I knew I'd used it just a few days before as a rag from Mom's supply to clean up ball point ink stains.  As I pulled it from her garbage, sure enough, the pocket of the shirt was untarnished! I used the scissors to quickly cut out the pocket with the tiny Golden Bear.

                                                   

            (photo circa 2000- 2001)

   relaxing after mowing grass, on a summer's evening at twilight, 

in the coolness of the red maple tree at Mom and Dad's house

Kindreds of the same era

There was a dear old man at the register last week that reached into his pocket to give the exact change.  I took an instant liking to him when he pulled out of that pocket a little green change purse!
"A change purse!" I exclaimed.
I think he was a little taken aback at my enthusiasm at something so common place in his world.
"I haven't seen a change purse in years!  My dad used one all the time!  He died in June..."
As he offered his condolences and we chatted briefly (about how hard it is to FIND change purses these days, ha!), I discovered he was also a Korean Veteran and in his early eighties.
More similarities.  I find myself drawn to things that remind me of Dad.

August 2015

I cried when I saw the death date inscribed.  

It makes it all seem so final, 

yet I know in my heart: this is not the end, just the beginning.

Happy Birthday to us!

In honor of the July birthday girls!

  

Karla, Kathy, Kimby

(circa 1983)

Getting Closer to a Cure??!

Using an ultrasound treatment could restore memory lost due to Alzheimer's!!!

http://www.sciencealert.com/new-alzheimer-s-treatment-fully-restores-memory-function

Image: 3Dme Creative Studio / Shutterstock.com

New Alzheimer’s treatment fully restores memory function

Of the mice that received the treatment, 75 percent got their memory function back.

BEC CREW

18 MAR 2015

1.6m10.k

 

Australian researchers have come up with a non-invasive ultrasound technology that clears the brain of neurotoxic amyloid plaques - structures that are responsible for memory loss and a decline in cognitive function in Alzheimer’s patients.

If a person has Alzheimer’s disease, it’s usually the result of a build-up of two types of lesions - amyloid plaques, and neurofibrillary tangles. Amyloid plaques sit between the neurons and end up as dense clusters of beta-amyloid molecules, a sticky type of protein that clumps together and forms plaques. 

Neurofibrillary tangles are found inside the neurons of the brain, and they’re caused by defective tau proteins that clump up into a thick, insoluble mass. This causes tiny filaments called microtubules to get all twisted, which disrupts the transportation of essential materials such as nutrients and organelles along them, just like when you twist up the vacuum cleaner tube.

As we don’t have any kind of vaccine or preventative measure for Alzheimer’s - a disease that affects 343,000 people in Australia, and 50 million worldwide - it’s been a race to figure out how best to treat it, starting with how to clear the build-up of defective beta-amyloid and tau proteins from a patient’s brain. Now a team from the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) at the University of Queensland have come up with a pretty promising solution for removing the former.

Publishing in Science Translational Medicine, the team describes the technique as using a particular type of ultrasound called a focused therapeutic ultrasound, which non-invasively beams sound waves into the brain tissue. By oscillating super-fast, these sound waves are able to gently open up the blood-brain barrier, which is a layer that protects the brain against bacteria, and stimulate the brain’s microglial cells to activate. Microglila cells are basically waste-removal cells, so they’re able to clear out the toxic beta-amyloid clumps that are responsible for the worst symptoms of Alzheimer’s.

The team reports fully restoring the memory function of 75 percent of the mice they tested it on, with zero damage to the surrounding brain tissue. They found that the treated mice displayed improved performance in three memory tasks - a maze, a test to get them to recognise new objects, and one to get them to remember the places they should avoid.

"We’re extremely excited by this innovation of treating Alzheimer’s without using drug therapeutics," one of the team, Jürgen Götz, said in a press release. "The word ‘breakthrough’ is often misused, but in this case I think this really does fundamentally change our understanding of how to treat this disease, and I foresee a great future for this approach."

The team says they’re planning on starting trials with higher animal models, such as sheep, and hope to get their human trials underway in 2017. 

You can hear an ABC radio interview with the team here.