Blood Drive September 12, 2015

During the last 15 months of his life, our son David received hundreds of units of life-sustaining blood components from the Mass General Hospital’s Blood Bank. We are grateful. We want to give back. We have scheduled a bloodmobile to come to the Belmont Chapel on Saturday September 12. We’ll be on hand during the whole blood drive to greet you and thank you. Please join us and many others in the lower parking lot of the chapel and give blood.

The signup is at https://davidjohnstonblooddrive.youcanbook.me/.  Each timeslot can handle four people. When four people have signed up in a given slot, that slot becomes unavailable. At the moment, nine slots are completely filled  and 12 slots still have room for at least one more person (9:45 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.).

Let me know if you have any questions.

Plan, Commit, Covenant, Pledge, Promise, Swear, Vow

            Now that the leukemia saga is over, I plan to continue blogging: I hope you’ll continue following my blog. The blog predates the leukemia; we’ll see what the blog becomes over time.

            As I composed this post in my mind, I wondered what verb to use: do I simply plan to continue, or will I commit, covenant, pledge, promise, swear, or vow? Which accurately describes my investment in the blog and my responsibility to my readers?

            To me, a covenant is between God and me; a vow also suggests a solemnity I won’t apply to posting a blog. I originally considered ‘promise’, then paused: perhaps I’m not that serious. Is a commitment more or less binding than a promise? To me, promise is the stronger word. It connotes a personal pledge to do all within my power to fulfill it. After this mental discussion ‘plan to’ seems weak and indecisive.

            Of course, if you never come back to my blog this whole discussion will be moot.

            For now, I pledge to post by 11:59 p.m. each Tuesday for the remainder of 2015. (Engaging comments are welcome: please sign your name.)

            I may post more often, especially at first, as I process David’s death.

Thirteen Days without David

            We’ve missed five outpatient clinic appointments at MGH. In other words, it’s been thirteen days since David died. It hasn’t really hit me yet. Will it ever? The flurry of activity with the visiting hours in our home (which is the former McCarthy Funeral Home, in actual fact) and the funeral arrangements were distracting, and we spent the rest of the week at a rental house in the Catskill Mountains of New York: all our remaining kids were there for at least part of the week. Yesterday I did housekeeping: laundry, making beds, cleaning up Jim’s office, catching up on email.

            It is a relief to not worry about him or spend two full days each week at his appointments. It’s easy to think he’s just away from home: he should be in Texas now with his Army unit.

            I’m grateful he died at home. It is a blessing that we could provide him with a quiet, safe place to die.