I thought you'd all enjoy reading this. She's a spunky 96-year-old, ain't she?


Okay, Katie and Fred went over to Jeffie's today around 3:00 p.m. to tell her about his cancer. I've tried to duplicate what Katie told me on the phone, but some quotes may not be exact. However the meaning is still the same. (I couldn't write quite as fast as Katie was talking).

Katie said when they got there, Jeffie was in bed, and Katie got her up and then Jeffie walked right past Fred and didn't notice him. Then Katie handed Jeffie her glasses. Jeffie took one look at Fred and said teasingly, "Well I don't believe it. It's been so long since I'd seen you I thought you died or something."

Fred grinned and looked at Katie, whose mouth had dropped open, and said to Jeffie, "Well to tell you the truth, mom, they've been trying to kill me but I won't let 'em."

Jeffie said, "What??"

Fred said "I have cancer, mom." (Now Fred had picked up a pack of cigarettes although Katie protested, because he told Katie he had to appear normal to Jeffie and she never saw Fred without him smoking, so he had this one cigarette and it was lit, and in his mouth while he talked.)

Jeffie said, "Cancer?"

Fred said yes, and told her that the doctors thought he could beat it.

Jeffie said, "Well you take that cigarette out of your mouth and throw it away, and the pack too!! That's what you gotta do if you're gonna beat this!" So Fred took the cigarette out and put it out and pitched it and the pack. :)They told her he wouldn't smoke anymore. (He'd already gotten rid of the ones at home, this was just to appear normal today).

Well at this point, Jeffie was on a tangent about Fred and smoking and he had better quit smoking cause he had to quit that to fight this cancer, and so on. Fred was trying to tell Jeffie that she had to move again, but she wasn't listening. She finally grasped that he said he couldn't afford both houses anymore and said, "Oh, so you're gonna move in here with me. Well that's allright."

Fred said no, no, and Katie took over. She said, "Mom, listen to me. The house Fred lives in costs $200.00 per month. The house you're in costs $600.00 per month."

Jeffie thought about this and said "Well I pay $400, but I can't pay $600."

Katie said, "That's what we're trying to say."

So Jeffie said to Fred, "Well ok, you'll need to sell this one and stay in yours. So where am I gonna go?"

Katie told her she was gonna go to Jane's house. Katie said, "You'll get to see Callista all the time."

Jeffie said, "I'd like that. I'll babysit for her and save her money."

Katie explained that Callista was in school. Jeffie said well, she can take her out and I'll watch her. Katie re-explained that no, Callista was in regular school, not day school. Jeffie said, "Well that don't cost her nothing then."

Katie said, "No it doesn't."

So Jeffie said, "Okay, I'll watch her at night then. " (hehehee. Katie was trying not to crack up about Jeffie babysitting.)

Then Jeffie looked at Fred again and said, "So you got cancer?"

Fred said, "Yes mom."

Then Jeffie asked, "What will happen to all my stuff?"

Katie told her Jane would take care of it.

Jeffie said, "I need my books."

Katie said, "You can take your books mom."

Jeffie said, "I'll need my records and my record player."

Katie said, "You can take those too, mom."

Jeffie said, "I'll need my pictures."

Katie said, "You can take your pictures, mom."

Jeffie said, "What about my bird?"

Katie said, "The bird's going with you, mom."

Then Jeffie said, "Where am I gonna sleep?"

Katie said, "They're taking your bed there mom, you're gonna sleep in your own bed."

Jeffie said, "Ok, I guess we just have to do what we have to do then."
Then she looked at Fred and said, "Are you ever gonna come to see me?"

And Fred made her a promise. He promised her that he was gonna meet her at church every Sunday, and that she could come over and spend the day at his house all day and they would get her back to Jane's later."
(Mind you, this is if he's able to get to church that week).

Jeffie said, "Well that's one way to get you to church!"

Fred said, "Well mom, I kind of thought I needed the big guns on my side in this one, you know, as an ally."

Jeffie said, "Well you ain't gonna get no bigger ally than God." Then she said to Fred, "How come you ain't seen me lately?"

Fred showed her the scar from his surgery and she asked him, "Well why wasn't I told?"

Fred said, "I didn't wanna tell you anything till we knew exactly what I was dealing with. The information was not clear at the beginning. We didn't know what we were dealing with until the after the surgery had been done. And people know, so the family and other people are probably going to start calling you now."

And Jeffie said, "Okay. But you should have told me!"

Fred said, "I didn't want to worry you. I wouldn't have worried my kids except that my blabber-mouth sister did it for me!"

Jeffie looked at Katie and said, "You told them then? You kicked him in the butt and got it done?"

Katie said, "Yep mom, I told em. I got it done."

So Jeffie accepted that and then Fred and Katie decided to get something to eat because Katie was feeling lightheaded and hadn't eaten all day. So they left Jeffie for a little while and went to eat with Evart. Before they left, Fred told Jeffie that he'd bring her some biscuits and gravy, but she couldn't have any if she went back to bed, she had to stay up. So she promised to stay sitting up in her chair and not go to bed.

Sure enough, when they came back with the biscuits a little later, she was still sitting up in her chair. She ate her biscuits, then sang Fred the Titanic song she has been singing (long story, read the monthly letter), and then she said to Fred, "Fred, did you say you had cancer?"

Fred said, "Yeah mom."

Jeffie said, "But the Doctor said it's curable?"

Fred said, "Yeah mom. "

Then they got up to leave, (Katie decided she didn't need to stay all night with Jeffie, she was handling it ok), and Jeffie said, "You all going out to find some wooden nickels?"

Fred said, "Yeah mom, we're going to go find 'em right now."

And that's how it went. It went a lot better than anyone expected, so we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief. I know I'm relieved.

Brenda
Nightowl >8#

P.S. Took out a line I had in for the family group.