Photography, seeking, writing…and learning along the way. Want to come along?!
There are many ways to consider “layers”.
The beauty of the photography by fellow blogger, ‘A Remark You Made’, made me think about a young man I know who wanted to be photographed wearing angel wings. His life is a tangle of layers; adoption, sexual identity, self-expression, culture…
Layers by a Remark You Made:
Bailey Wacholz was 14 when her dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Even though she and her mom Pam noticed changes, the diagnosis was not immediate.
As the family wrestled with the new challenges in their world they reached out to the Alzheimer’s Association. Like others who contact the Association, Pam and Bailey felt they found help, support, and new family; people who understood- and stood by them, no matter what.
Bailey, now a student at Bethel University, also discovered an unexpected network through the Association. A young woman with a busy life, Bailey had to figure out how this new world was going to work. Several things occurred that make Bailey both a star, and an explorer.
As a pageant participant and Miss Minnesota Outstanding Teen, Bailey chose education, specifically educating youngsters about Alzheimer’s, as her platform. In doing so, she created a curriculum she now takes to elementary and middle schools that includes books and displays to help young people grasp the meaning and implication of the disease. “It is amazing how many little kids are touched by this,” observes Bailey.
In 2010, Bailey attended a session at Austin’s Camp Building Bridges at New Life Ranch in Colcord, OK. Specifically designed to offer young people respite; teenage caregivers can interact with peers, practice skills to help them cope with a relative with Alzheimer’s, and even learn how to become an advocate. It is also a chance to just have fun! Named for the founder’s son, who struggled with her diagnosis of frontal- temporal lobe dementia, the camp serves kids around the country. “I met girls who are in the same situation as me…one from Minnesota, another one from Georgia- I feel like we will be friends forever…” says Bailey.
Bailey and her mom are trained support group leaders, allowing them to share their experience and wisdom with others in the community. “Bailey and I feel we need to educate and support people. People need to know what to do; those with Alzheimer’s or dementia- their family and friends. We also feel people in the community need to be aware, to know how to help out and reach out.”
“The Alzheimer’s Association is always just a phone call or email away. Whenever I called, they jumped on it. Their hearts are truly in it.”
To reach out to Bailey, check out Bailey Wachholz on Twitter
My mother wore Chanel No 5 all her life. I recall, as a kid, wondering why anyone would splash on toilet water! Gross! I could never figure out how something that smelled so lovely had such a dumb name.
Yesterday, while looking for something to wear to yet another job interview, I was inexplicably drawn to the Chanel counter. Near the bottom of the polished glass case were the bottles of No 5 Eau de Toilette. The young woman staffing the display took some out and spritzed a sample card. I immediately teared up! Mother might just as well have been standing beside me.
She and I were best buds when I was small; lunches out at Sibley’s or McCurdy’s department stores in downtown Rochester, NY (we always had chicken salad on white bread, crusts trimmed with a (shared) cheesecake chaser). At Christmas there was breakfast with Santa. Yes, I am a child of the fifties.
And so, standing at the Chanel counter, I bought a little bottle of Chanel No 5, sprayed a tiny bit close to my heart this morning and thought of another whom I love, my brother Mark, who would be 67 today! Though not here in the flesh, he is with us is so many, many ways. Be sure to look for a rambly, photo-filled blog after Thnksgiving. We will be spending it with Mark’s widow and my nephew in Asheville, NC!
This morning’s obituary section listed a gentleman with whom I am acquainted. At 52, his career accomplishments are impressive. A loving family is left with memories of a talented, devoted father and husband. He died, of course, too young.
What the article does not mention is that he was a childhood cancer survivor. There are hundreds of thousands around the world. Brave people, many now well beyond their twenties who underwent treatment for leukemia, Hodgkin’s, brain tumors, and other malignancies. For some, the treatment was in its infancy.
A pioneering group of researchers at the University of Minnesota recognized the challenges and pitfalls inherent in the treatment of these young patients. In tandem with other standouts in the field of oncology, Dr. Ann Mertens, Les Robison, PhD, and Pediatric Oncologist, Dr. Joseph Neglia, launched a cohort study of 20,000 childhood cancer survivors (The Childhood Cancer Survivor Study). The research on individuals treated between 1970 and 1986 would, in effect, change the face of treatment as we know it today.
Combining forces with venerable institutions around the country and in Canada, a detailed, longitudinal process commenced that would look at the late effects of the radiation and chemotherapy used to treat childhood malignancies. As survival rates improved, so did the unintended consequence –adverse events such as cardiac complications, breast cancers, and second cancers.
Today, the key players are scattered. Dr. Les Robison is Chair, Department of Epidemiology and Cancer Control at St. Jude’s in Memphis where the CCSS is now based; Dr. Ann Mertens is on the research faculty at Emory in Atlanta, and Dr. Joseph Neglia is Physician in Chief at Amplatz Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis, MN. All three remain committed to research leading to positive outcomes for children, ‘beyond the cure’.
For information on support and resources for Childhood Cancer Survivors, click here:
A new visitor to my blog, Rumpydog, made me realize I did not post any photos from the Pause4Paws benefit in October. This organization fund raises to support dozens of groups who rescue, treat, feed and support foster care givers! http://www.pause4pawsmn.org/success_stories/
Just one mile from our home is Crosby Farms Regional Park. The original 160 acre farm was active in the mid to late 1800’s and was the largest and longest running farm in the West End/Highland Park area of St. Paul, MN. Cattle, dairy cows, horses, pigs, and chickens were raised on the farm, along with crops including potatoes and apples.
Today is is a wild, virtually untouched parcel of 736 acres; the largest natural park in the Saint Paul system of parks and it is an important component in a string of parks that protects the biodiversity of the Mississippi River corridor through the Twin Cities. “The park protects…floodplain forest and adjacent steep, wooded slopes cloaked mostly in oak forest, a scattering of wetlands and small lakes (Crosby Lake and Upper Lake), and the Mississippi River shoreline. When the Mississippi River floods fish and other aquatic animals gain access to these small lakes, which act as nurseries for their offspring.” Source material http://www.nps.gov
West Seventh Freelance 
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