The time has come

After 48 years of writing this column, I have decided it’s time to pack it in. Thanks to the trend on the part of the public to computer news rather than newspapers, I have only a handful of customers left although at one time the combined circulation of the papers that bought the column was larger than the circulation of the Seattle Times. True, I lost a few that disagreed with my opinions which tend to be conservative, but I never was an out and out Republican. I merely acknowledged that I believed more in the Republican philosophy that government should only do for people what they can’t do for themselves or it can do better. I consider myself an independent.

I never throughout all those years ever solicited customers. All of the 40 some papers I served contacted me to get on the list. I also was asked by Portland’s daily newspaper to write a column for them, but they wanted one just for them, rather than those shared by everybody else. I replied I didn’t have enough time to do it, what with working for my paper as a political writer plus the column. KOMO-TV also offered me a job as their political or investigative reporter and said I could still do the column but I turned that down too since I neither wanted to commute to Seattle or move.

I started out writing five columns a week for my local paper, the Bremerton Sun, but when other papers began calling, I cut it to three, then two. So far as I know, I was the only columnist who provided two columns each week. Most columnists provide one.

Actually, I wanted my obituary to read that “she never quit writing until the end” when the time comes but I also want to spend some of my life not having to meet a deadline.

I considered finishing out 50 years if I have any customers left by then but 2013 has been a tough year for my physically. When I got my usual annual mammogram, an ultra sound done with it along with a pet scan revealed I had lymphoma. My regular doctor referred me to an oncologist and I was able to see on her computer the spread of the cancer from the largest lumps under one arm and one ear plus numerous small ones.

She took my case to the cancer clinic she attends where doctors sit around and discuss each other’s patients and there wasn’t a lot of enthusiasm for proceeding with treatment on account of my age, but my doctor insisted. I was too lively to be given up on. I had three chemotherapy sessions, which I endured well other than losing my appetite. A second pet scan in August showed no signs of the lymphoma. I was in remission. Unfortunately, however, when I was taking an injection as part of the treatment to keep the lymphoma from returning, the nurse accidently missed the vein in inserting the needle and my arm filled with fluid. When that was discovered at the time by me, I was assured my body would absorb it but I am still suffering from it.

Then I fell off my kitchen chair, which has wheels and a run for running from stove to sink, etc. on a stone floor. I reach for something and the chair didn’t go with me. My leg caught in the rung and I got a nasty bruise and a raw spot on the back of my shin. I treated it myself but months passed and it didn’t heal which is how I became acquainted with the Would Clinic for people with that problem. Weekly visits there resulted in the large raw spot getting smaller and smaller as it healed.

I know I’ll miss writing since I’ve been doing it since I was a kid and used to sit through Saturday movies, come home and write it all down to read to my brothers and sisters who pooled their money to send me, making up my own serial chapters when I missed one. It’s been a heckuva life. I’ll miss serving you. I hope you miss me.