Deflection

It has been over cast all day today, the highs on the 70s. There was rain last night.

On a sad note, Dane Olivia Newton-John past away. In the early 2000s, I got to see her live in a big theater in Cedar Rapids. Her wit, beauty, and charm out surpassed other entertainers. It was a night that I will never forget.

(In 2020, Queen Elizabeth made Olivia a dane, as a recognition for her accomplishments. The Queen has also made Julie Andrews a dane.)

But is was the early 1970s the remember the most. I tried to buy all of her records, since I really liked her songs, and I would lay around listening to each note in her songs. Her catchy personality was recorded in some of her records. And, from then on, I was hooked by her and her country music. (It seems difficult to place her in the country genre, since she was coming from England at the time.) I will state that I liked her country singing better than her modern singing, and I have heard that she enjoyed her country singing the best. For example, she sung most of her country songs in the Cedar Rapids theater the night that I saw her. (I loved her Australian/British accent that night, and she made you feel so warm in the inside.) I really never watch her two movies, since they seemed to be in her character for her, as if her producers were trying to stretch her away from her country music roots. The night in the theater, and through her career, it was like you were have personal relationship at arm’s length.

The story in my family is: My sister and future husband were out on one of there first engagement when Olivia’s new song can on the car radio. My sister asked what the name of the song was. He stated that the name was: I honestly Love You. Although one can wonder about the merit of this story, I know that the timing of the release of the song and the time of the story does match.

It seems like, unfortunately, cancer ran in her family. Her dad died of brain cancer, she out lived her sister that died of brain cancer, and her brothers, and MD, probably died of cancer, but her mother lived to be 88 years old without the cause of death being listed. However, with Olivia surviving breast cancer for 30 years does speak to Olivia’s positive atitude that we all seen through the years. With her cancer going into her lower spine three yours ago, it seems like she has been living on borrowed time.

Since the announcement of her death, I was reading about her family. Her mother was born in west Germany in 1914 to Jewish parents. Before the war, they move the Great Britain. in 1953, her grandfather won the Noble Peace Prize for Physics. Her dad was Welch. During WW II, with his back ground in German literature, he worked in espionage, included deciphering the German codes. As I have noted in the past, people with Jewish background often succeed easily in entertainment. She will be missed by many people.

Otherwise, this has been a quiet day, except for this morning when Jaime, Raylyn (3), and Rowan (six months) was here at mom’s house. Mom seems to enjoy their company, but, after they leave, they soon forget that they were here. Then at 4:00, she is asking about supper. It does not make sense that she is hunger, but she has lost the sense of time. So, from a practical matter, it seems like she is filling in time. At first, I tried to state that we should not eat in the middle of the afternoon, but it seems to make more sense to try to find her something to eat.

Since mom get real restless at 4:00, I have found that it works but to take her on a small road trip around the area. it is kind of interesting, she first asks who lives down the road. After sometime traveling, she seems to get into the mood and start looking at the scenery, and then everything seems to go fine.

The evening caregiver for four nights a week has built a good working relationship with mom, she has the ability of calm mom down, and this good, since mom can hear the tones in her voice. As for me, when mom is ready for bed, I take her to her bedroom and she gets herself ready for bed. As stated before, since she cannot hear the tones in my voice, there is not much conversations, unfortunately.

Roger