Eyrline’s Blog Friday, November 9, 2014

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This week, I’ve been studying about how to write with senses and paragraphs.  It’s not that I haven’t read/heard about them before, but since my illnesses, they have apparently lost some of their meaning.  Reading my previous posts and other stories has brought this to my attention like a rocket hitting me in the head.  My reading has been: THE MAKING OF A STORY, by Alice LaPlante (one chapter at a time), WRITING FICTION,  by Janet Burroway,  EVERYTHING, IMPROVE YOUR WRITING BOOK, by Pamela Rice Hahn, Prentice-Hall HANDBOOK FOR WRITERS,  THE WRITER’S WORK by O’Hare and Memering. and other online posts. (I read Just the parts I thought I needed to read, not the entire books, to clarify the above.) Reading about writing isn’t going to help unless I write, write, write.

This week there has been doctor appointments, a biopsy (I don’t have the results, yet, and one has to be repeated  Monday), home health professionals are in and out, at times  not designated, fixing my glasses, as I dropped them and stepped on them.   When I kept my appointment with the ophthalmologist, he said these were my last pair of glasses with this much prism  until I had surgery.  Right now, everything looks like it’s underwater. The surgery is scheduled for March of next year, if my health warrants.  These are my only times of socializing, except for WVU/F2K chats,courses and Social. Facebook’s another social outlet, if I don’t have to look at the ads.

Even with added symptoms,  side effects from the medications and/or diseases,    I play for church. My schedule last Sunday consisted of two services.  The revival began Sunday and lasted through Wednesday.  The only problem was suddenly falling asleep (a symptom of a medication and PD) on the piano bench and had to be helped by a deacon and the second time, the pastor.   These spells happen when my medication wears off.  Other symptoms are twitching of fingers, wrists, legs and sometimes body.   The PT is giving me stretching exercises to avoid stiff muscles.  I don’t belong to a support group, as the Foundation only has special groups, not an informal support group.  There are several on Facebook, but I haven’t been active in them for doing other things on the computer.

Now, I Praise and Serve God by playing the piano for church.   As I get older the disease will  progress and most people with PD end up in bed. I don’t know how much it will progress.   I ask myself about how many more years will I be able to play for church, do my housework (I already can’t cook or drive), type on the computer?  I want to lean on God, pray without ceasing about everything I do.  I know His plan is better than any I could make myself.  I need to follow God’s lead in everything. Reading the Bible is God speaking to me.  Praying is me speaking to God.

Psalm 92:12-14:

The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree,  He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon.  Planted in the house of the Lord,  they will flourish in the courts of our God.  They will yield fruit in old age; They shall be full of sap.

Claim God’s promise:  The righteous will flourish. . . .They will yield fruit in old age.

Eyrline’s New Blog Friday

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EYRLINE’S BLOG FRIDAY FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

This is the first day of my blog.  I’ll start with my health problems and not mention them again, except for how I feel. My doctor says I have two pages of ailments.  I’ll condense them:  Parkinson’s Disease, Epilepsy, Copd, Gerd, EN, and nodules on my head which will come off in surgery next Thursday.  I have an appointment for a GERD procedure Monday.  I have faith that all will be ok.  Each procedure and surgery will require a biopsy.  Next Friday I’ll post the results.

I am so blessed by God.  Even though I have all these problems, He sent us to a church which didn’t have a pianist or organist.  We knew the pastor, who had heard us play.  The second Sunday we were there, we were asked to take the positions.  As it is a very small church, the positions are volunteer.  I had always wished it possible to have a volunteer position so I could give it all to God.  We make less, but have more.  I have more faith in God, that no matter what, He will care for me. I am willing to follow His plan for my life.

I have three children, Gloria, Mike and Ken.  We lost Mike in 2008.  He was a Juvenile Police Officer who was taking a teenager to court at the Murrah Building.  He forgot some papers and had to go back to the shelter.  He arrived five minutes late, just in time to see the building be bombed. Then he was assigned to pulling the children from the day care across the street, as that building was damaged.  He did this for thirty=six hours.  After he slept a few hours, he couldn’t get up.  He had a full-blown breakdown.  As he was almost recovered, his left hand caught fire. He was in Chickasha and the hospital wouldn’t take their insurance.  They had to drive to Oklahoma City before his hand could be treated.  This ended his career, as he was left handed, the hand he used for his pistol.  He had another breakdown, started drinking and eventually drugs.  He was a Christian, but the voices in his head were too much for him. He had a beautiful baritone voice which he used for God singing in a quartet and singing for church. He had so much talent and I love him so much.  He has three children, Jamie, Michael and Catherine.

Rest in Peace, Michael Arthur Beets, Jr. 1961-2008.

Gloria married Larry Tarlow, now the Administrator of Library services for the NY Philharmonic.  I met him when he was the Librarian for the Oklahoma Symphony Orchestra and I was the Administrative Assistant.  Gloria came into the office and met Larry and they began dating.  Their first son was developmentally disabled, which added stress to the marriage.  The next two were gifted.  He couldn’t take the problems at home and do his job, so he left and acquired an apartment close to the Symphony hall.  She met someone who helped her with the children, especially Jeffery.  Later, they had a child who was also developmentally disabled.  An Indian Doctor in NY told Gloria of a school in India and Nepal who cared for children with the syndrome Thea has.  Alone with Thea, she headed for India to put her in the school and see the doctor her doctor recommended.  Soon, Gloria decided to try the school in Nepal.  There she met a man she loved and they were married.  Thea is thriving in the school and Gloria is happily married. She teaches Yoga and English as a second language.

Ken is one of a kind.  He graduated from Vo Tech in electronics.  He won the Vica Award for Oklahoma City and Oklahoma.  He came in second in the nation.  He opened his own Computer business and was the entrepreneur for several years.  Then he worked for the state as a computer executive.  General Dynamics asked him to go to Afghanstan, for a large salary.  He stayed two years, until he heard there was going to be war and the Marines were on the way.  GD offered him a job at Tinker Airforce Base doing the same work for the same salary.  He works out at Cross Fit and is first in Oklahoma and seventeenth in the world in the trials.  For someone past fifty, he feels and looks good.  He recently married.  When he had his own shop, he adopted a baby his girlfriend had. He wasn’t the father, but he cared for him as if he was.  The father was unknown.  He was a bright spot in Ken’s life.  Alex is now in the service and a good Christian man.

I have six grandchildren, a seventh succumbed to Tuberous Sclerosis.  Two, Jamie and Michael, are in Oklahoma City, Catherine is in Oregon, Henry and Rachel reside in NY, and Thea is in Nepal.  I see Jamie often. Ava is my great granddaughter, the daughter of Michael.  She is lively, takes dancing, and is beautiful and sweet.

I have a wonderful husband.  We are both musicians, which gives us much to talk about and research, as well as listen to music and play for church, as well as practice together at home.  We both have chronic conditions which will get worse as we get older.  When it is time, we will move into Assisted Living.

I have one sister who was a Medical Technologist in the Blood Bank at Integris for thirty years.  She now cares for our mother who is one-hundred-six and spunky.  She had a stroke two years ago, which slowed her down. Joan’s husband has Parkinson’s Disease. We both have home health aides, keeping our spouses almost free from our care.

That’s me in a baggy.  Next Friday I’ll have a subject on writing, as I belong to Writer’s Village University, assist as an Intern with the F2K free seven week creative writing classes, attend classes and write short stories. Next Friday, I’ll share my latest writing.

I almost forgot Ruby.  She thinks she’s the most important member of the family.  She’s a white Pekingese, Yapper II at WVU, replacing Prissy, who was Yapper.  Many stories have been written about them.  She believes she is my baby and is very sweet, but a vicious watch dog, at fifteen pounds.

See you next Friday.

Eyrline (Lee)

Recovery From Four Month Illness

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After being in bed for almost four months, I’m up and running again.  I’m writing more, practicing the piano and organ again, and the most exciting is: The church has a new (used) Allen organ, and, as the organist, I was well enough to play it the first time it was played!  I’ve had prayers from people all over the world from Writers Village University, OrganChat, PipeChat, my church, AGO, and many other people.  I asked specifically to pray that I would be well enough to play the new organ for the first time.  Praise God, I was able to play the Sunday before Christmas, Christmas Eve, and the Sundays since then.  My husband is a piano and organ technician, as well as an organist.  He was able to get the organ moved to the church, set up, and the speakers moved to the organ chamber where the pipes for the old organ are.  I should explain why we are replacing a pipe organ with a digital.  The pipe organ had not been maintained for at least ten years before we arrived on the scene.  For what was designated for organ repairs, he made the organ playable again, fixed the dead notes, tuned it, and made many thousands of dollars worth of maintenance.  It still needed at least $100,000 worth of work to restore it.  This AllenMDS25, which had been used very little, became available and the church voted to buy it  for much less than it usually sells for.  Now, you have “the rest of the story.”

At the age of four, I entered “big church” for the first time.  The “King of Instruments,” the newly installed Hillgreen, Lane and Co. pipe organ was being played and it took all my mother could do to keep me from going to the organ.  She took me into the balcony so I could look down on the organist and watch her play the pedals.  I told my mother that someday I was going to play that organ.  Intuitively, she started me on piano lessons immediately.  When my legs were long enough to reach the pedals, I started organ lessons, on THAT organ.  It was like a dream come true.  When the organist asked me to substitute for her, I was ecstatic.  I first heard the organ in 1941.  When I returned, with my organist husband, it was 2005.  The church had decided to repair the organ instead of buying a digital.  Keith was chosen to do the repairs.  He and my son worked for several months.  About the time it was ready to play again, the organist and her husband were called to another church.  According to my statement of faith at age four, I was called to be the organist  — about 70 years later.  Never underestimate the faith of a little child.

I know that “all things work together for good to those who love the Lord, who are called according to His purpose.”  A friend mentioned maybe the four month hiatus was to teach me to have more faith.  For Christmas, our Music Director gave me a book,  Faith, Promises to Inspire Your Heart.  I had several bouts of bronchitis and pneumonia throughout the year, and a good Christian friend kept telling me to rest.  There was so much to do, and I didn’t listen — until I collapsed.  Those months in bed gave me time to rest, pray, read, contemplate the future.  Faith is the Victory!

Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure;  gennuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine…It’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of His victory.

1 Peter 1:6-7 msg