Mom, I Love You

I am writing this from Alabama. Today is a good day (I'll explain more later), but it has a tinge of sadness too. Today was my mother's birthday. She died nine months ago of pancreatic cancer, in the most bizarre of circumstances. The short version--she was really sick, and in the hospital for a week. I had flown to Florida to be with her. She was told that she had cancer, but that nothing was going to happen anytime soon, and she was mentally okay with it. I left to fly back home, with the intentions of being back in a few weeks. I landed in Houston, only to get an emergency call from my brother to get back on a plane. I was back in the hospital in Florida 24 hours after I had left it, and my mother died one hour later. I had the privilege to be with her the last hour of her life. The next day my father and brother and I had to evacuate (remember the three hurricanes that hit Florida?), and we lived in a daze in a hotel somewhere for 2 weeks....but that's another story.

Anyway....if your mother is alive, tell her you love her. And happy birthday Mom......

Good Ole Golden Rule Days.....

I’ve been getting quite a few emails recently from former students (I am sensitive to the word “old”). For those of you that don’t know what I do (sometimes I don’t know exactly what I do!), I teach radio and television to aspiring broadcasters-to-be. It’s amazing how spread out they all are....in the last week, I’ve gotten emails from New Orleans, all over Texas, and a couple of the “it’s still cold up here” states. Even though the media is a crazy field, with sometimes ‘questionable’ practices (I am trying so hard to be politically correct), I am touched at how so many of the folks that came through here still feel connected to the teachers and students they “learned the biz with”. And take note now...there are plans in the works to have a reunion of some sort in September....more details to follow.....

9 pm

It's Friday the 13th! I spent the whole day at the hospital getting chemo, so I'm pretty brain dead right now. I know I'm supposed to keep this blog page cancer free....and let's hope the chemo is doing the same to me! I'm too tired to think of anything interesting to say....so hug somebody for me. Good night....

Mother's Day

I hope everyone had a Happy Mother’s Day yesterday! My kids conspired together to make me breakfast (home-made Belgian waffles.....I can feel my arteries closing...) and we spent the day just hanging out and talking (which is the hardest thing to accomplish with teenagers!) I’d like to extend my good wishes on those of you that also serve as surrogate moms (or dads!) to other kids not related to you. Lots of us have “extra kids” in the house from time to time....you know, the ones that always seem to be there? It takes special people to open their homes and hearts to extra kids.....bless each of you.

Get Involved!

Most people I know are committed to something ‘extra’...a benefit, a charity, a cause of some kind. I’ve always wondered what makes someone get involved, and I think I found the funniest answer yesterday. My daughter Cara and I were at the American Heart Association Annual Luncheon at the Westin Galleria, because we were lucky enough to get invited, and even more importantly, because the keynote speaker was Jack Valenti (a very influential man in politics and the motion picture industry, and since Cara wants to go into film, she was dying to meet him). Anyway, there were about 300 people there, all wearing the color red (get it? Heart Association?), all sharing their stories of working towards a common goal and how fulfilling it was. Several talked about how they originally got involved in the organization. One woman I was standing next to was very quiet, and I asked her what made her become a volunteer in the organization. Her answer? “I look great in red.” Yet that one seemingly insignificant silly answer still made her a hero to someone....she works hard to accomplish something for the organization, even if the original reason she got into it was a bit different. My message? It doesn’t matter why you get involved, as long as you do it.