Category Archives: Blatherings

Double-Edged Swords Suck

Posted on July 18, 2014 | 2 comments

Okay, this is a whiny post, if you don’t want to hear me sobbing, don’t read this.

I have yet another reason to hate this freaking issue with my heart. Other than the obvious, exhaustion, discomfort, blah blah blah. It is the emotional pain.

When I first went to Mayo and learned I had to have the LVAD put in, I was devastated. Seriously. I manned up, I did it and then I went to stay at The Gabriel House at Mayo. That place changed my life. Literally. I don’t know if I would have survivied without the people I met there. I lived with those people and I came to rely on them for the love and support they offered so freely, even though they were sick themselves.

I met lots of people, but a handful came to be more important than others. One such couple were the Jusicks. Mike and Valerie. Mike struggled every day with caring for Valerie and helping her keep her spirit. Little did he know that Valerie willed herself to keep on living because she wanted to be able to care for him. He worried and she so did she. They nurtured each other and they spread a special kind of joy to everyone they met. It was a delight to be a part of their lives. Sadly, Valerie lost her battle with cancer very recently and the world lost a beautiful sunbeam.

Another such couple were Sandie and John Guerrero. John had undergone a lung transplant and then was hit by cancer again. He soldiered on and I do mean soldiered on. He was ruthless in his fight to survive and to maintain a positive attitude. I don’t imagine it always worked, but I never once saw him when he didn’t offer me a smile and a kind word. He teased me mercilessly about my endless pursuit of “talents” and his encouragement helped keep me going.

John also had a special gift. As part of his own personal therapy, he taught himself to draw with colored pencils and the results are nothing short of extraordinary. See for yourself.

John passed away last night.

I love the people I met at The Gabriel House, but at the same time I hate that this stupid heart of mine has subjected me to the added emotional trauma of having come to love people who die. I can’t help but think that if I had never gotten sick I never would have met them and I would not feel such horrible pain at the loss. On the other side, without this damn heart I never would have experienced the wonder of knowing these people.

It just sucks. Really and truly sucks!!!!

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Posted in Blatherings

Clinical Depression. You Can Defeat Your Demons!

Posted on June 10, 2014 | Leave a comment

Potential demon slayer am I!

Bob's NewHeart

By Bob Aronson

Depression, what is it? Why can’t you just snap out of it? Many people including family and friends who have not experienced depression have great difficulty understanding it much like people who are not addicts can’t understand addiction. In both cases we often hear advice like, “Snap out of it, you’ve got things pretty good. There’s no reason to be depressed.” Or, “You made the choice to start drinking or using drugs so choose to stop.” Oh, if it were that simple.

Here’s a cold slap in the face to bring us into reality. Depression is a mental illness, like the common cold is a physical illness. There has long been a stigma associated with mental illness held over from the days of Insane Asylums and “Crazy” people. That stigma is rapidly disappearing because so many people suffer from depression which is often a chemical imbalance that…

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What’s New at Sassy Gal?

Posted on June 4, 2014 | 1 comment

Click Cover to Buy Bow!

My book is The Universe Builders: Bernie and the Putty, a humorous fantasy about a young god who just graduated from God School and it out to build his first universe.

I was delighted to find Karen, who was a great help with editing and evolving my book. She has an amazing knowledge of grammar and she brought that extensive knowledge to bear on my book. As a high fantasy, there were numerous people, places, and things that were made up and without any earthly precedent. Karen found rules for hyphens, capitalizations, and much more. She was extremely valuable in catching my spelling errors, often putting my spell checker to shame.

Never having gone through this process before, I was surprised to learn she did a series of edits, each time looking for different things. Using this technique, she returned manuscripts to me with a class of corrections, which made it easier to incorporate the changes into my manuscript.

She was committed to a successful completion of my manuscript, so much so that she committed to working with me until I was 100% satisfied.

I certainly am!

*Note: This book was an editorial project. No formats or artwork were provided by Sassy Gal.

Steve LeBel
Author of The Universe Builders: Bernie and the Putty
www.TheUniverseBuilders.com