I haven't been able to come here for a while. My bust buddy Randy's
mother is fighting a vicious cancer; and damn the evil thing, it's
threatening to win.

I've known the family form the start of high school. Back then they were
dirt-poor, Joycie living with her three sons in a single room, claptrap
trucker's motel right on the edge of our hick town, her scum husband
having run off on her for a younger woman. He got out of paying support
and they lived off welfare, and Joycie raised the boys with a strict
work and study ethic. It paid off, as one is an executive with BankOne
and the other is one of those who drafted the recent Medicare
legislation which took effect in the US. Joycie learned to do office
work, got off welfare, and went to work for a pet shop and cleaned the
laundromat in front of her apartment in exchange for a substantial rent
cut.

This woman, even at her poorest, had a bed and hot meal for any of her
kids' friends who were either too drunk to drive or had to run away from
getting beat on by a drunk parent. A tiny woman, she was full of the
devil and was as protective of her boys as a mama bear with cubs. Now,
she even tinier than ever. This filthy cancer is eating her from the
inside out. It has no exact origin but has just decided to take a long
and nasty cruise through her lymphatic system. The chemo's screwed he
bad. She was taken to the hospital last Tuesday, and they found she has
literally a zero white cell count. They've been pumping her full of
antibiotics and fluids and while she is now more mentally coherent, her
body is still a mess and getting worse.

Louie and I have been going at night to do the laundromat so the boys
can get a break and visit with their mama. By the boys I mean Randy and
the bank guy Dale.
Both live out of state. The one boy who is local has not visited, nor
has his wife, nor have either allowed the grandkids to come. One of my
friends has offered to stand in Joycie's place at a healing service to
be anointed in the Pentecostal Christian tradition. But I know from
reading everyone's postings that a purr can make miracles: there have
been healings, jobs, pets and humans reunited. Please send a few for
Joycie and her boys, all three of them. They all need some strength,
each in their own way.

Blessed be,
Baha