❧❧❧ Whatever you can do or dream, you can BEGIN IT. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Goethe ❧❧❧
❧❧❧ You were born whole, not broken. Sandra Hammel ❧❧❧
It's a given: I love where I live, though its size is small, it has grand opportunities and much beauty. A small seaport called Newport, Rhode Island has history, of course the native north Americans' and of the colonial days. Newport is actually an island called Aquidneck Island by the Indians and the actual Island of Rhode Island on the map. There are only three towns on Aquidneck Island, the south end is Newport, the north end is Portsmouth and the middle is uncreatively called Middletown. I'm a transplant here, living here since I was 24 years old and now I have to admit, I'm way past those years now. Rhode Island is a tiny state...you can get anywhere in this state in an hour basically. Our biggest town is Providence, the capital of Rhode Island. The word "providence" means "God, when conceived omnisciently, directing the universe and the affairs of humankind with wise benevolence". The fact that the city of Providence has such substance and almighty meaning behind the definition of its name is humbling, or at least, should be humbling.
We have the mighty and beautiful tallships gracing our harbor right now. At night, their outlines are beautifully lit up. And PRESIDENT BUSH was here today. But none of us got to see him. The news reported that Airforce One landed on the Navy Base here at 10:30 a.m. He was invited by our Republican Governer Donald Carcieri to come to Rhode Island today. Now there is only one state left that Bush has never visited - Vermont. Rhode Island was taken off that short list today. Our two United States Senators and our two Representatives are all Democrat, and his approval rating here in Rhode Island according to one of the signs at the protest today, is as low as his IQ. Many of the signs were on that order, of say ... "insulting".
President was scheduled to speak at 11:00 a.m. I am a major activist here in RI for stopping genocide, specifically the one in Darfur that is four years and four months old. So I went with my poster to the sight of other protesters gathered today close to the Navy Base where Mr. Bush spoke about the subject of
TERROR.
Only two of us had signs about Darfur. All of the other signs were of peace, getting out of Iraq, not getting into Iran, impeaching Bush and or Cheney and so on. We had around 250 people. Wal-Mart wouldn't let us park in their huge lot. But the Pizza Hut gave us permission. Afterward, I went to thank the manager for allowing us to do so. I think he was surprised that I did this. But it was apparent that he appreciated the "shout out".
Okay, we were pretty confident that President Bush wouldn't want to see us and would not drive by our little protest, but we knew the television cameras would probably come for the show. However, mostly they reported President Bush's speech on TERROR.
The real terror is President Bush and his "non-executive branch", Vice-President Dick Cheney. Did you hear about VP Dick Cheney saying that he isn't fully a member of the executive branch of the government this week? Unbelievable, but he said it.
The support of those who drove by all of our signs was overwhelmingly in support of the protesters. And when my neighbor and I walked the streets of Newport with our Darfur signs with all of the tourists in town for the tallships, we were very much supported. People asked to take pictures of us and gave us words of thanks.
It's too bad that President Bush chooses to only represents those that he can pidgeon hole as his true supporters. His supporters have given this man license to ruthlessly strip us as a nation of our reputation worldwide with his stupidity. When he "ran" for President he only allowed people into his "town meetings" who supported him. He hand picked his crowds. What kind of democracy is it, that the Presidential candidate will only speak in front of those that he hand picks?
This guy has sold us down a political river and doesn't even care that it's polluted.
I'm not a Bush supporter because I don't agree with anything that he has done as President.
When what’s wrong is pretended to be right, we are not facing the truth. That is a problem.And that is where we are as a nation of wrongs with the current Administration.
Iraq should not have been invaded.And “not leaving” Iraq will never make that fact right, Mr. President.
Personally I feel that television journalism quality in the USA has sunk so low that it is not worth my time. Is it that we USA citizens don't want to know about what is going on around the planet or that our news media has been feeding us "news candy" for so long that we don't recognize the state of media news coverage?
Yesterday, was Refugee Day. And it made me think that millions of people don't have a bathroom to use, running water, electricity - all the things that we take for granted. Many fear for their lives every minute of every 24 hour day. Children who are abducted to be soldiers and forced to do things that we refuse to think about for more than a fleeting moment.
A refugee is a person who "owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country..."
The 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees
"The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was established on December 14, 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees." http://www.unhcr.org/basics.html
Video from a Refugee Camp with David Rubenstein (Past Executive Director of the Save Darfur Coalition) and actress Mia Farrow.They traveled to Darfuri refugee camps in Chad to document first hand testimonials from the victims of the ongoing genocide in Darfur:
This is our world. And it is not right that we don't speak up and act when we have so many blessings. The things that consume our time, thoughts and money are what speak to what is important to us. If we don't even want to know what is happening in the real world, then the problem is not only the victims but our individual and governments' moral compasses have been lost.
"Today, there are more than 33 million people in need of international protection and assistance. Roughly 12 million are refugees and more than 21 million are internally displaced people (meaning they have been forced from their homes by violence or disaster but have not crossed an international border). People displaced inside their countries face the same hardships as refugees, without the same protection under international law." http://www.arcrelief.org
I was raised to be a Christian. I was taught: On the last day, Jesus will say to those on His right hand, "Come, enter the Kingdom. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was sick and you visited me." Then Jesus will turn to those on His left hand and say, "Depart from me because I was hungry and you did not feed me, I was thirsty and you did not give me to drink, I was sick and you did not visit me." These will ask Him, "When did we see You hungry, or thirsty or sick and did not come to Your help?" And Jesus will answer them, "Whatever you neglected to do unto one of these least of these, you neglected to do unto Me!"
What I see is "I've got mine". And that seems to be the end of the philosophy. Whether you claim to be Christian, a believer in some other God-based faith or what I consider myself to be today, a humanist, who believes that we are all sisters and brothers who should look out for one another with empathy and compassion - this world is suffering from the "I've got mine" attitude and blaming the ills of the world on the "evil-doers" is lame at best.
What's in it for you is that you aren't free until every one is free. So, those who die with the most possessions or in the so-called "richest" country in the world have no more guarantee to happiness in her or his heart than one living under a tree or piece of card board in a refugee camp.
I am happy not because someone else must receive less than their due to pave the way for my happiness. But I am happy because I am living my life in the light of truth and integrity. What makes no sense to me is that we claim to be free when in deed we are not.
Words are not enough. I am sick of George Bush getting away with his dishonorable conduct. I am sick of speaking out about the Darfur genocide and the whole world just lets it go by without even a genuine effort to stop it. Who are we, if not hypocrites? Hypocrites: a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc. that he or she does not actually possess, especially whose actions belie stated beliefs. That's what my dictionary says a hypocrite is. To me it defines President Bush.
May 29, 2007 Lobbying U.S. RI Senator Whitehouse regarding Darfur genocide
Left to right: Bill York, Frankie DaPonte,Samantha Brilhante, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse,me, Sandra Hammel,"Instead of Mourning a Genocide - Stop One", Jackie Cano, Michael Murphy, Juliana Beltran, Patrick Schmitt,Frank T. Caprio, RI General Treasurer, not pictured, Xay Khamsyvoravong, RI Treasurer’s Deputy Chief of Staff, not pictured
On May 29, 2007, I arranged to meet with United States Rhode Island Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse in their Rhode Island offices to lobby them about Darfur. I invited other constituents to go with me. This was the third time that I had lobbied Senator Reed. Senator Whitehouse is in his first 6 year term as Senator. The need for the China Resolution was spelled out to Senator Reed in our lobby meeting. When I called Senator Reed's contact person for Darfur to follow up on our requests of action last week, she admitted to knowing absolutely nothing about there being a China Resolution. So I repeated my request, giving her the number of the Resolution. She said she would look into China Resolution and she didn't think there would be any problem getting Senator Reed to sign on. This proves it is not enough to speak to the Senator and trust him to do what is right. Furthermore, Senator Reed even told us that he thought he might already be a co-sponsor of the resolution. No, this was not so. We are the "Checks and Balance" on our elected politicians.
May 29, 2007 Lobbying U.S. RI Senator Reed regarding Darfur genocide
Left to right: Xay Khamsyvoravong, Deputy Chief of Staff of RI Treasurer, Patrick Schmitt, Senator Jack Reed, me, Sandra Hammel,Frank T. Caprio, RI General Treasurer, Jennifer Ross
We took five requests of action to the senators and the slowness of this kind of response to people who are living on the ground without any thing but their spirits to keep them going day into night is NOT GOOD Enough.
Here are the five requests that we Rhode Island constituents asks of our United States Senators when lobbying about Darfur:
1Senate Bill 831 Divestment Authorization Act
Move it by working with northeastern Senators
Member of the Sudan Democratic Caucus?
(Note:H R 180 sponsored by Lee & Frank in Financial Service committee)
_________________________
2Appropriations
a.Administration’s budgeted amount for AU and UN Hybrid Peacekeepers: insufficient
b.Asking for additional $186 Million above President Bush’s requested amount
c.Ask him to move it out of committee with the $186 Million amount
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3China Resolution Senate Resolution 203
a.Tell him we want him to be a co-sponsor on the Senate Resolution 203
(House of Rep has a sister H Res 423)
1.70% of Sudan Oil exported to China
2.China provides arms to Sudan
3.China is protector at UN for Sudan, President Omar al-Bashir
(4.Note:China untypically assigned a Darfur Special Envoy)
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4Oversight of Administration’s efforts to address crisis in Darfur:To ensure that Darfur is being correctly prioritized within U.S. foreign policy and to ensure that no opportunities for peace are missed for lack of resources.This oversight can come in the form Dear Colleague sign-on letters, congressional delegation trips to Darfur and Chad, as well as private conversations with Administration officials.Oversight is also critical to guarantee that any sanctions which may be enacted as part of a package of “Plan B” measures are fully implemented.Special effort to ensure that all areas of the Administration are pulling their weight to make the sanctions effective is needed.Please exercise oversight responsibilities to make sure that the U.S. government is doing all it should be to end the genocide in Darfur.
____________________________
5We ask the Senator to write an Op-Ed piece regarding S. 831, as well as the importance of the China Resolution, S. Res. 203 to end the four year + genocide in Darfur, Sudan in the Providence Journal with Senator Whitehouse.
There are paid lobbyists in Washington, D.C. who are not paid to look out for us the citizens, but for their businesses’ bottom line, money.“We the People” must wake up from a sleep and become a part of our government or we have no right to complain that our government is not listening to us.“We the People” does not mean elected politicians and paid-by-corporations-lobbyists – it means “We the People”.That is you and me.
This is a mock cover.
It is shocking what has been happening in the name of the citizens of the United States of America these last several years.I believe if you think President George Bush and his hand-picked administration have been serving this country well – you just haven’t been paying attention.I know some think I am absolutely wrong.
This isnot a mock cover. It is/was for real.
But the rest of the world have no USA blinders on. These blinders are an anomaly known to US Americans only.
Find your USA senator and become part of the solution to our poor governing:
Did you know that the United States citizens who live in the nations capital, Washington, D.C. do not have any voting representative in the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives? Isn't that taxation without representation? I think so.
Dad in his thirties, coaching basketball practice Dad, my brother and me at Lake Michigan's beach
An Indiana winter scence at the lake that dad made Dad and me. He's the cute one : )
A summer scene of the same lake Both of my parents had the same nickname in high school.They were Mick and Mick. Reflection on the lake Dad, my younger sister, my older brother and that's me with the barefoot
Dad, as coach
and again Dad was just thrown in the shower by the team in this picture. Keith, the player beside himcame to dad's funeral and spoke very lovingly about him.
By brother and me
Dad at home Dad & I That looks like an onery look on his face. Probably was.
April 9, 1944, the day my parents married.
He loved his rock business. He took his "rock talk" to the schools to share his knowledge. Here he is in his Clear Creek Rock Shop with my son.
Dad at my house in Rhode Island First Grandson, who is now 27 years old. Loved being Grandpa.
Me with the lake that dad made behind me.
My dad, brother and me. I'm sure I just got scolded, it's written on my face. Dad, my brother and me in Huntington, Indiana, where both of my parents grew up and where I was born. Home of Dan Quayle's Library. Really... Okay, so I'm the ONLY democrat in my family, but I took this picture when I was home in May to prove it to you... Bush the father chose Quayle and Bush the son choice Cheney...hmmm...not too good at selecting vices
Dad at home
Dad & my son, Jonathan, out on his man-made lake
Dad & my son by the lake
Dad Here he is in September 2005 Dad's family. He's the one holding the ball.
Dad's oldest brother, the physicist, Dad in the middle, Dad's other older brother, the artist and farmer
Dad's Mother and who I inherited my red hair from
TRUTH NEVER DIES
At my dad’s funeral, I began with these words:
“The one thing about my dad that makes him special to me was and will continue to be his SPIRIT.My dad is my hero.He made it a better world…”
I am grateful for the time that I had with my Dad a year ago during father’s day week, when I flew to Indiana to see him.It was the last father’s day that he was alive.I sang hymns to him in his little room.Sometimes, he sang.He initiated conversation one day.I was told that he wouldn’t recognize me by my sister who lives in Indiana.I was told by my mother that he didn’t show happiness any more.None of this proved to be true.When I walked down the hall of the Alzheimer residents’ floor, I spotted him standing 30 to 40 feet away.He lifted his arm toward me and said my name “Sandy”.He immediately wanted to leave the building.Later I found out why.He wanted to go home.
When father’s day came, I went to visit dad.I told him it was Father’s Day and that he was my dad.Neither my brother, nor my sister visited dad on that day. I spent a lot of time with dad that week which I found out later upset my mother.Dad expected mom to spend more time with him and mom didn’t like that.I upset her life.That is reason enough to be condemned in my family.
The Hammel Reunion - one that dad was present for
Because I wanted to have more time with my father, the first week of August 2006, I flew back to Indiana for dad’s birthday which coincided with the annual Hammel family reunion.Mom was not happy with me for coming.The day after dad’s 82nd birthday, I took him out for a car ride.This was the last time I was allowed the freedom to take him out.He was worried the whole ride that he would get in trouble with mom for going out.Even so, his whole body language changed completely when he saw where we were – at the lake and house that he had built.During this trip out, he made it clear that he felt that since it was his family reunion that he should get to go.It made sense to me.But what also made sense, was his worrying about mom’s power over him at this time in his life.The next evening dad asked mom in front of me if she was going to the Hammel Reunion.For someone who I was told couldn’t remember things, he remembered this for over 24 hours.She answered him, “No, and you’re not either.”She was mad at me.I said “He wants to go, why shouldn’t that matter?”The next morning I received a phone call telling me that I was no longer to take dad out for car rides.And specifically, that Mom forbid me to take him to his family reunion.The nurse called me to tell me this information.That evening when my dad’s sister and I went to visit dad after the reunion, dad was scared the whole time that mom would show up.This woman badly affected this man, but blamed me for his reaction.None of this looked like love to me.
My father still had desires, wishes and expressed them.But he was denied by his wife, my mother to have any say in his life.She was in total control.This saddens me even now after his death.She won this one.But overall, Dad was the ultimate winner in how he lived out his entire life to the last breath.
How do I put into words in one blog post, a lifetime with my dad?That is not possible to do.That, however, has never stopped me from making an effort before.
My family is nothing like the one that I thought I had.Turns out that pretending played a big part in what my family is.The family that I was supposed to believe that we were was a Christian-loving, compassionate and kind family.Except for my father, in the end, none of that is true.My mother has shown herself to be someone that I don’t know. But at least, now I know.There is some positive value in that knowledge.
Until, my dad got a supposed diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease, I had to take dad on mom’s terms.On the phone, she controlled the conversation when they both were on the phone.Then over the last several years, she just acted like he didn’t exist at all.I had to press her to put him on the phone.When he was on the phone, she criticized him for breathing too hard or being wrong about whatever he did try to say to me.I overlooked much of her behavior.But it became so blatant last summer, that I had no choice but to see her for what behavior she exhibited for all to see.
My father always recognized me.He always was able to communicate with me.Yes, there were days that he couldn’t retrieve words that he was looking for, but none of that mattered to me.It was all the more reason to love him and be patient with him.I personally don’t believe that he had AD, but some other form of dementia.An AD diagnosis cannot be definitively confirmed unless a brain autopsy is done after death.Having this diagnosis appeared necessary for my mother’s sake.It allowed her to put him away and feel justified.My father pleaded with his wife, my mother, to allow him to live at home.In front of me, she told the doctor last August that she and he had been fighting every day before she put him in the “home”.
The saddest thing about my dad’s dying May of this year is that he wasn’t truly loved by the woman that he emotionally demonstrated his love for until he died.For the last decade she increasingly and more boldly humiliated him.She put him down in front of all to witness.She revealed to me that she is not the person she pretended to be all these years.She still wants me to believe that she is.But to do that, I would have to deny myself a promise that I made to myself:I will live in truth.Maya Angelou says “when someone shows you who they are, believe her/him.”
That is where I am with the people who are in my family.Even with impaired mental retrieval, my dad had emotional integrity to the end of his mortal life.What a betrayal of trust he lived through.If there is a heaven, I hope he gets extra credit for this enduring skill that he exhibited.
It is difficult beyond reason to accept that your mother lacks total empathy and has never found out who she really is.I feel my mother proves denial of true feelings only creates a fiend.My mother wants me to believe that what she says is true.Instead I believe what she behaves.
My whole adult life I have been the “sinner” or the “black sheep” of the family.For a long, long time I struggled trying to gain what I thought was my parents’ approval and love.But, now I know it was my mother that was the hold out.I wanted to be known for the woman that I had become.I wanted to be understood by my mother.Now, I surrender.I don’t want her approval anymore.I live fully without her understanding the full human being that I am.It is her loss more than it is mine.As much as I would adore having a mother’s love in this way, I know a person who doesn’t know herself or love herself has no way of giving this to someone else.This is sad. But this is true.I can live with truth even when it is sad.
In spite of my family’s stamp of disapproval of how I live my life, or how they think I live my life, I have found my real self.I love my life.And after trying for the last time to communicate with my mother on August 7, 2006, I leave her with her life and I was able to step into my life more freely than ever before.I have never been happier.My family looks like some scripted movie to me.It is not a family that I would want to live in.There is not one person in my family that I see anything that I would want to be.Except for one.Dad.I would never have dreamed my family would turn out to be the way it is.But it is.
Dad died Thursday, May 10, 2007 at 10:05 a.m.May 10th is the same day that his mother died.
Dad at his parents' grave stone September 2005
He was 82 years, 10 months old.The only member in my family who had called to tell me about dad’s expected death was my brother, who lives in Maui.The two who live in Indiana, my mom and my sister, had never contacted me over the last years about dad.Not to tell me he was leaving home to live in this institution.Not that he had fallen after being hit by a car.Not that he was near death.On Wednesday, May 9, 2007, my brother called me to let me know that the next morning he was going to arrange to have dad hear his voice.We were both going to Indiana the next week, but in case dad didn’t survive that long, we wanted speak to dad, although he himself couldn’t speak anymore.The next day, Greg called me at 9:00 a.m. to update me.
My dad gave me what I needed to believe.Where mom had let me down in so many ways, Dad came through.He demonstrated how to live in truth and integrity even at the end.My dad was real.He was never pretentious.Those who knew my dad admired him.The middle of five children, born August 3, 1924, he was the only one in his high school class of 1943, to be classified 4F for the military during World War II.He was however recruited out of high school, by Curly Lambeau, the coach of the Green Bay Packers.
My father’s favorite sport to play was football although he ran track and played basketball. And he did all of this with his own dad’s disapproval, initially.
This is what they wore. This is the only picture I have - it's high school.No Green Bay Packers picture, just a Packer-Redskins program, a letter from Curly Lambeauand newspaper clippings with his name praised a lot.
My dad was very proud of his oldest brother, now deceased, Harold Theodore Hammel, a world-known physicist. This is uncle Ted's back side of his grave stone:
Just before Ted died he had proven a new theory. His name was nominted for a Nobel Peace Prize, but you cannot be awarded posthumously.
I visited my dad's other older brother, Jerald, in the early evening of the day of my dad’s funeral. He told me “Your dad got more beatings than all of the rest of us put together”.Dad got some of those beatings on the behalf of other’s actions.His mother put salve on his wounds.My dad’s family was far from well-to-do.His own father a few days prior to finishing seventh grade was sent to work and live on a farm for room and board.He told my father he cried himself to bed every night.
My dad built the three family houses that I lived in as I grew up.The first one I was born in. The last one was built on a lake he created from a natural spring where a corn field had been. During college, he started his own wood floor refinishing business that developed into contracts doing the basketball courts at Notre Dame University, Indiana and PurdueUniversities.He taught and coached basketball at two high schools with acclaimed success.But to him, the most important reason for coaching was the mentoring that it allowed him to do.The local newspaper sportswriter told me that Bobby Knight respected my dad’s coaching and came to recruit players from dad’s teams.
For me, I remember the fact that dad’s players rules included strict rules about not dating – so it seems that might have had some bearing on the fact not one player ever asked me out for a date.
I was raised by imposing parents.The leather belt was used frequently on me and my brother.Both of my parents gave us “lickings”.With dad however, I remember the talks afterwards -they were confusing.He would sit on the edge of my bed with me after the blistering cracks on the skin and say that “he did it because he loved me and that it hurt him more than it hurt me”.Well, he was wrong on that.
By the time I grew into myself as an adult, I knew my father had the heart of a teddy bear.It is not okay to whip your children.I was able to see through that and see him for who he was at heart, later in my life.My dad was a compassionate man.He made it a practice to not criticize people in general.He showed his sensitive nature by how he chose his words and articulated his thoughts.He admired spunk.He had spunk himself.He never pretended to be anything that he wasn’t.
Truth for me means no pretense.Being genuine.Real.Dad gave me the gift of personifying these attributes from a member of my family.
The newspaper sportswriter spoke at my dad’s funeral, “The one thing that I liked about Mark was his intensity.He loved to win.”
I am intense.I love being passionate about my passions, about my life.And now I can own this trait about myself and see that it comes from dad.
Although it appears that dad got beat by life – that is not true.He lived his life to the last breath on his terms.He was forced to live where he didn’t want to live.He wanted to live at home.But he refused to draw his last breath until he wanted to.
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My dad's older brother, Jerald died while reading his mail on his bed May 19, 2007. I was the last one to see him face to face, although his children had talked to him on the phone. My dad is survived now by their only sister, who is a gifted pianist. My uncle had mailed me some photographs that I had left at his house. They arrived in my mailbox after he passed away. His daughter told me that he wanted me to have a picture that he had drawn of me. I feel blessed that I decided to go out to visit Jed the day of my dad's funeral.
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The Day My Dad Died I Was On the Phone With Him
When I called, Marcia, a nurse picked up the phone.She said dad’s "pulse is irregular, there are crackles in his lungs, he is non-responsive today, he moaned yesterday when I turned him over".
Below is what I said on the phone call to my dad.He took his last breath at the end of the phone call.
“Hello, dad, this is Sandy from Rhode Island.I love you, dad.I love you so very much.I wish I was there.I would hug you and kiss you.I’m going to sing you one verse of
“The Old Rugged Cross”.
On a hill, far away, stood an old rugged cross,
The emblem of suffering and shame,
But I know that old cross, the dearest and best,
For a world of lost sinners was slain,
So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross
Where trophies at last I lay down
I will cling to the old rugged cross
And exchange it some day for a crown.”
I’m coming to Indiana in 6 days, but if you go to heaven before that, just know I’ll see you up in heaven and I’ll hug you and kiss you in heaven.I love you, dad.Can you squeeze Marcia’s hand to say you love me?I love you, dad. Bye
Following this in a couple of seconds, Marcia came on the phone and said:
Sandy, he blinked his eye
I think he’s very close
I think it helped
I’m holding his hand
It’s amazing
He’s waited for you
Beautiful…beautiful
You know, I think he’s gone
I’ve never seen anything like it…..hhhh.
It’s just amazing
I said, what do you mean…
Reply:You and the connection
He waited for you
The healing
He blinked – he doesn’t do that.
I said in response, he was resourceful to the end. He didn't have the strength to squeeze your hand, so he came up with something else.
She responded, How can anyone not believe?
She said, I don’t have my stethoscope, but I think he’s gone
I said, would you get your stethoscope?
She replied: I will.I’ll be right back.
Back, she says:I think he’s gone
I said:Will you touch his hand or arm?
She answered:I touched his forehead
She asked me:Will you be calling Greg?
I said:Yes.
I asked Marcia to stay with me on the telephone.She did.
This was a gift that he gave to me.This was a blessing.I knew it right then.
I shared this story at the funeral service and the singing of “The Old Rugged Cross”.
“Let the world stop turning,
Let the world stop burning,
Let them tell me love’s not worth going through
If it all falls apart
I will know deep in my heart
The only dream that mattered had come true
In This Life I was loved by you.”
From the song “In This Life” sung by Bette Midler
When I went to thank Marcia for all that she had done for my dad, I asked her which eye dad winked with and she said the one near the wall, the left one. I can't even make my left eye wink by itself.But he could.I know he understood everything I said to him. He found a way to say he loved me when I asked. Then...Marcia said she saw him take his last breath. She said she has never seen anyone go like dad, immediately following an exchange. What a gift he gave to me. Such a blessing. Now, he has peace that he so deserved and needed.
What a really cool man he was and continues to be in my life. A wink has a whole new meaning for me now.
Dad liked Tennesee Ernie Ford, Here he is singin”16 Tons”
In honor of my father I continue to do my political activist work. He lived full-out. That's what I intend to do.
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I'm open to whatever life sends my way. Just like truth, hope never dies. I don't know what is in store for my family. But I remain ready to welcome any goodness and truth.
I love my life. I love where I live. And I am passionate about my passions. I love to dance. Necessary to live: music, piano, singing, writing, acting, painting.
I have been fighting for and supporting the arts all my adult life. Since 2004, I have been working with other activists to end the Darfur genocide.
I have traveled to Europe many times since my early twenties. Places I have been: many USA states including Hawaii, Montreal, Canada, Barbados, France, Spain, Luxembourg, England, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Greece and Germany - and have wonderful memories.
My last trip was in May - June 2013 to Spain.
I would like to travel to Europe and Kyoto, Japan.
I love the southwest where I have visited Hopi, Navajo, Zia and San Idlefonso potters.
Life is exciting and I intend to live it full-out to the end.
B.S. and M.M., both in music
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Khartoum, Sudan Stop Genocide Time
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Spain Time
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Melbourne Time
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Hawaii Time
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RAFA NADAL -BRING BACK LONG PANTS - SLEEVELESS TOPS
Double Click on Videos to Enlarge
Darfur - The Abandoned Genocide - a video by Sandra Hammel
Want to help? Call 1~800~GENOCIDE
"May I Suggest" by Susan Werner
Satchita - Playing for Change
Stand By Me ~ Playing for Change
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Genocide is not only a word,
it is crying of the whole human race.
There is nothing redeeming about being silent
when speaking up is the humane thing to do.
The honor and integrity of the human race is at stake.
