My mom passed away exactly 8 days ago. It’s taken me as many days to muster up the courage to write anything about it and I still don’t really know what to say. But I needed to get some of my inner thoughts out of me because this is therapy for me. Maybe my therapy session will help you, too.

Please pray for Mom. Her health is declining.

Memento Mori. The Latin phrase means “remember your death.” What a way to start an update! Don’t be alarmed; we’re all still here. But the last ten days have been a stark reminder that humans have a 100% chance of death. Cancer keeps you in a memento mori state of mind.

Mike was {finally} admitted yesterday to begin high dose chemotherapy conditioning for his stem cell transplant. The featured image for this post is the second bag that was hung. As always, the folks here at Duke are phenomenal.

You know how I posted last week that January wasn’t kind to us? Well, February’s acting awfully ornery already. On Monday, we hit another setback. We’re the setback champions! There’s got to be some sort of trophy for weathering the amount of obstacles and disappointments we’ve seen, right? Surely there’s a trophy.

Y’all. January 2025 did not start out promising health and prosperity for our family. We’re praying February will be a bit more kind.

It’s finally here! Collection Day! The technology is so fascinating. Check out the pictures below.

Mike had to get a new type of port for the stem cell collection tomorrow.

Today is yet another travel day. We had this down to a science in the months back and forth to Duke. That is, until we had to pack for three months! Shew!

Today was filled with family time, packing, organizing, and errands. We’re going to miss our oldest’s birthday next weekend, so we made some time to celebrate early. It was a good day.