I would like to give you some background about myself.

I was born in July of 1955 in Cincinnati, Ohio. My father worked on and built pool tables. My mother was a homemaker and I had one brother who is 5 years older than me. We were not poor nor were we rich. But we always had what we needed and some. We were definitely a middle class family. My father was considered a functional alcoholic and I remember him always being very ill. He inherited a disease that we now know was Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia, type 1 and Zollinger-Ellison syndrome. We made many many trips to Ohio State University Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. His doctor was actually Dr. Zollinger for who his disease was named for. He suffered terribly but he always got up and went to work. It’s no wonder he drank.

We lived in Cincinnati until I was 12 and my brother was a senior in high school and we moved to Sacramento, California where my dad had a new job. This was horribly difficult for my brother because he had been in the same school up until he was a senior and we moved. I never understood why he had to be uprooted at that stage of his life. Anyway as soon as we got there, my dad became to sick to work. He decided we must settle in Shelbyville, KY where all his brothers and sisters were so we would have help because he knew his time was near even though I did not know. My brother despised Shelbyville and after he graduated he joined the navy.

My dad was 6 ft and 2 inches tall and his weight had dropped to around 100 lbs. He died at the young age of 41 from his disease which turned into pancreatic cancer. My brother was so devastated because they were best friends. I was too young to understand how much I would be affected by his death. To make a long story short, I grew up and was a handful. I ended up being a hippy and smoked a lot of weed. Met my first husband and had two daughters and from there a string of mistakes until I met my dream guy, Lee. He was my rock and my soulmate, he kept me grounded and he adored me and my daughters. He died last year.

During the time that I married Lee, I went to college and graduated as a registered nurse and I spent the next 35 years taking care of traumatic brain injuries and spinal cord injuries. My patients meant so much to me.

My husband and my brother ended up being very best friends and we spent so much time together. Lee and me and my brother and his wife vacationed together and visited back and forth and we all got a long so well and had the time of our lives. As years went by, my sister-in-law was struck with dementia and their son died at a young age. This was a devastating blow to my brother and his wife. Then my husband became ill and my brother had been battling cancer but he made a trip to see my husband and when he did, my husband died the next morning.

To this day, my brother and I remain very close. He is still battling cancer and I inherited the same disease my father had but there is treatment now and I am doing quite well due to my doctor at the University of Kentucky Medical Center.

So that is a synopsis of my life. I now am 68 years old, a widow, a grandmother and find myself writing a blog. Being alone is not my cup of tea. I do have 4 wonderful grandchildren and my first grandchild graduated from University of Kentucky with a finance degree and he has a wonderful job and is getting married in July.

I have many life experiences and wanted to share happy stories, sad stories, stories about life whether its about my dream guy or just a topic I want to bitch about so I want all of you to do join me and share your happy stories, sad stories or simply just want to bitch as well. Nothing is off limits.