Margie feels better!

Margie's son the doctor consulted with Margie's doctor and they altered her medications, and the dizziness has mostly gone away. She feels much more solid on the earth, and there is less ringing in her ears. Wonderful.

We met today instead of Thursday, as tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I brought Margie a copy of Frank Ostaseski's Five Invitations: Discovering what Death Can Teach Us about Living Fully, and she said, "I really need to talk about death, and nobody will talk with me about it. I'm not even allowed to say the word among my children. I feel like I'm being left to deal with it in isolation, as if it's a shameful secret." I hope she won't be disappointed in the book. It's really about life, not death, but I'll encourage her to talk about death when I see her again.

I also took Victoria Chang's Dear Memory, which I've borrowed from the library, and read her some samples from it. She said it made her want to write. I asked her who she'd write a letter to, and she said when she was a child there was an older girl who consistently ridiculed her and put her down, always acted superior.

--What would you like to say to her?

"I'd tell her that I trusted her view of the two of us, and it took me years to realize I wasn't stupid. I wasted a lot of time believing I would never amount to anything. I'd tell her a truly superior person would encourage others and not make them feel worthless."

--Which is what you did.

She paused for a moment and then leaned back, chuckling, "Yeah, I guess that's what I did, counseling people with disabilities. I guess I made it my calling in life to encourage others to do more then they thought they could."