Monday, May 18, 2009

Isadore-Ize-Izzy-Sunny-Binder‏


On April 22nd, we took my father into the hospital for ear and

chest pain.In the course of diagnosing him they found cancer

of the pancreas metastasized to the liver. This was not related

to the ear pain. After less than a month,he passed this morning,

Sunday May 17th at 2:30 a.m. On Saturday, the whole family was

together,with most of the grandchildren. Though he was not eating

on Saturday, he did open his eyes occasionally, held my hand,

squeezed my hand and even waved goodbye when someone left the room.

My sister in law Sheryl Binder wrote the following:

Isadore "Sunny" Binder: January 17, 1925 - May 17, 2009

father-in-law, father, grandfather, husband of my mother-in-law

Helen Binder, metallurgist, veteran, golfer, email extraordinaire

and raspberry lover. You will be missed.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Things Could Be Worse

For years, I have had a saying.... "Things could be worse,
you could be in bed sleeping". I first remember saying this
when I was in Podiatry school and everyone was waiting to
take a test. At that time it had little or no meaning. Most
classmates probably would have opted for the in bed sleeping.
As the years went by and I have gotten older, it has taken
on more meaning.

This afternoon as I sat in Northridge Hospital with my father
who was recently diagnosed with end stage pancreatic and
liver cancer, he asked me how my mother was doing? I told
him fine, O.K.. Then he asked me how I was doing? I answered
"depends on which time of day you ask me".

His answer to me, was "Things Could Be Worse". So what I
had thought was something I made up years ago may be
something I heard years ago in one form or another.

I did not answer back. I just sat back and thought about it.