What a Difference a Year Makes
By Kay Kendall
Last December my
husband and I were running an endurance test. He underwent three months of
daily radiation treatment plus chemo for his neck cancer. This understandably obliterated
the entire holiday season. Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s. Everything. By
my birthday around Valentine’s Day, he was beginning to feel a tiny bit better.
During his
treatments, every day I drove him to world-famous, justly revered MD Anderson
Cancer Center, and every day we passed by the same Christmas decorations. Our
favorites were the most lifelike eight reindeer of Santa’s that you would ever
hope to see—short of the real animals. They were so splendid that they cheered
us up as we passed them each day.
Well, Santa’s reinder are back
again now. And as much as I’d like to wipe out that awful time last year, this
holiday season is bringing it back to me in full, pulsating detail. Instead of
being depressed by the memories, however, I am determined to wallow—yes,
wallow!—in thankfulness.
I am thankful that
the specialty hospital is only eight miles from our home. For family and
friends
 |
| New Orleans French Quarter at Christmas** |
who stood by Bruce and me as we crawled through the long tunnel of
those months and out into the light. For being able to participate this year in
the travel plans we had made for last year’s Christmas in New Orleans.
is bittersweet. The good friend who took us into her family last year at
Thanksgiving and Christmas has lost her own battle with cancer. Another friend
was in a dreadful wreck on an interstate in New Mexico and will suffer the
consequences of his many cracked bones and torn aorta for the rest of his life, even though he
was quote-unquote lucky to survive.
rush back into my head now. Like—you have to take the good with the bad. Life
has its ups and downs. And so forth.
get a bit scared when I contemplate the coming year, 2016. What will it bring?
Will I be ready for whatever comes my way? That’s when I just have to shut down
the Nervous Nellie part of my brain—and it is a pretty huge part, I admit—and adhere
firmly to the view that my cup is going to be half-full, not half-empty, come
what may. Even if I cannot convince myself that “my cup runneth over.”
dwelling too much in platitudes. But I am telling you what is in my heart and
in my mind these days. I also must add the joy I felt at the grocery store two
hours ago when the customers smiled kindly at each other, the holiday music
played, and a toddler kept bringing me items from her mom’s shopping cart. She
was so sweet and charming. And best of all,
**our weeklong visit to wonderful New
Orleans with family—including our two delightful grandchildren. Kids at
Christmas are delightful. Their joy is contagious.
say—Life is good. It has to be. The only other alternative is unacceptable, and
will come all too soon to each of us anyway.
whatever you celebrate this season, I hope you enjoy yourself and have family
and friends to do it with. I look forward to chatting with you again in 2016—which
I hope will be bright and healthy for us all. Rock on!
Kay Kendall’s historical mysteries capture the spirit and turbulence of the 1960s. DESOLATION ROW (2013) and RAINY DAY WOMEN (2015) are in her Austin Starr Mystery series. Austin is a 22-year-old Texas bride who ends up on the frontlines of societal change, learns to cope, and turns amateur sleuth. Kay’s degrees in Russian history and language help ground her tales in the Cold War, and her titles show she’s a Bob Dylan buff too. Kay lives in Texas with her Canadian husband, three house rabbits, and spaniel Wills. In her former life as a PR executive, Kay’s projects won international awards.
