Showing posts with label Sonja. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sonja. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 09, 2022

Sonja remembers February 9, 2020 with Phil

Sonja wrote on Facebook today: I miss my Philly B with every beat of my heart-he was the best friend a girl, like me, could ever ask for. [She was going through treatment for breast cancer and he for brain cancer. Her close friend Annie had just died of kidney cancer. All were members of UALC.]
2 years ago, this day, as he was in the battle for his life against Glioblastoma, his concern was for me, and my shattered heart on losing Annie, that is how Phil was.
 
The following are our text messages from the 9 & 10th of February 2020 [not included here] …I still treasure them to this day. He also “demanded” we take a picture together, which we then laughed and laughed, as we came up with the name for us “The Egg Heads”.
 
I went down and spent the 9th with him and then again, the following day, before I had radiation, as the Glioblastoma was kicking his ass, we ran some errands together, then picked up a pizza, and had lunch together. As we sat across the table from each other, we had a conversation that no besties should ever have, one of dying, it is still too personal for me to share, but it guts me every time I think of it…lots of beautiful silences, lots of tears, and most of all lots of pure love, that only two true friends can have for each other.
 
Phil made everything ok for me, he was my rock, a source great wisdom for me, my sounding board, and also my source of great belly laughs, especially when he would call me after work, and we would watch “Emergency” together. He had the biggest heart in the world, and it was also an ornery heart, which is probably why we were besties-ha! Not a day goes by that I don’t think of him…

Valentines Day is always hard, because that became [our] day, not for the reasons you would think, but because it was the day that we reconnected, oh so many years ago, and he “introduced” me to his meaning of it (and no, I won’t share that either, but it is hilarious), so every Valentine’s Day after that, he would wish me a “Happy VD Day” (and again, not what you think).
 
Damn, I miss him, I miss Annie…I hate February, I just hate it, and I hate it more that these 2 important people to my heart, have now been gone for 2 years. F*ck Cancer, just f*ck it to Hell, where it belongs.

Friday, December 25, 2020

Sonja loves snow

She was hoping for a white Christmas and she got one. We get very little snow in central Ohio, and only rarely on Christmas, but we had about 3 inches by 10 p.m. last night.  Sonja got her wish.  Our lights on our deck outside are buried, but muted.  And she’s thinking about her friends Ann and Phil.  Annie died of kidney cancer in February, and our Phil died of glioblastoma, brain cancer, in April. Sonja is in recovery from breast cancer.  As children they were all members of UALC, and their parents all are friends or ours.   Sonja spoke at Phil’s service in June at Gender Road Christian Church.

"It is so quiet and peaceful. . .what a blessed Christmas Eve, even as I have a few tears as I am sending love to my Annie and Phil in Heaven. Annie would be loving this snowfall, and Phil would be loving his Christmas tree.

Thank you God for this white Christmas, my soul needed it. . . kinda makes me want to dig out my little tree, and put it up, instead of continuing to bah humbug the festivities, but honestly, not decorating the inside of my house has kept me focused on the reason for the season, and I know it sounds strange, but it has made it really special to me."  (Facebook post, Dec. 25, 2020)  Photo is Phil and Sonja in February showing off their hair after chemo.

And yesterday, Christmas Eve, we also got a call from Keith, a friend of Phil's who has been under the weather with that nasty virus we've all been trying to avoid. He's almost completely recovered now. He was wonderful support for Phil and us when he was ill, and spoke at both the GRCC service in June and at Lakeside interment of ashes in August.


Keith and Phil in February