In 2006 I had two little boys (4 and 6), a husband with cancer, and two elderly parents with health issues, one sharp as a tack but in a wheelchair, one physically healthy but developing Alzheimer’s.
My parents fortunately lived nearby, just across town in Urbana, but life was becoming increasingly complicated. I could never remember which sister I’d reported to about my parents’ latest news or what latest kid anecdote I’d shared. I gave up trying to keep it all straight and started a blog, named, aptly enough, The Sandwich Life.
Little did I know that things were about to get even more complex. My parents’ health issues deepened, my beloved sister in South Carolina was diagnosed with bile duct cancer. I traveled back and forth to South Carolina as much as I could, having started a new job that was less than flexible, and she eventually came to live with us. My husband’s cancer metastasized and he went back into treatment. My boys? Well, my boys kept us all going but of course they felt the burden of all this happening in their young lives.
I wrote and wrote and wrote about my days, each excruciating day, and each joyful day, which were sometimes inexplicably the same day.
Something I never imagined happened. People found it and read it and they seemed to understand. They seemed to value reading this very, very real life story. They told me they liked to read it, sometimes because it was so close to their own lives, sometimes because it was so different. It wasn’t a huge number of people but they gave me strength. It became incredibly cathartic for me to write about my days and process them. I can’t imagine getting through it all without that release
Today? Well, my sweet boys are men. They are still amusing as hell, and as good hearted as ever. My parents both passed, two years apart, sandwiched around my sister’s death. And I’m still writing.
My husband’s health has had its ups and downs. Currently he is being treated for both prostate cancer and bladder cancer, here in Champaign-Urbana, as well as at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis. I developed some health issues of my own and left an unhealthy work environment. I began to do freelance work (content creation/social media, etc.). My spinal stenosis worsened and I find myself dealing with mobility and pain issues. Yet again, some days are excruciating and some days are joyful and some days are both.
Around 2018 while trying to deal with both physical and mental stress, we began driving out in the country more and photographing whatever we came across. As a lifelong lover of architecture and the cultural landscape, these wanders soothed me and I began to share the photographs on my blog.
In 2023 I switched to the Substack format. For the first time I was brave enough to consider that my writing and wandering might be worth paying for. The payments I receive go to fund the gas and hotels needed for our wanders and to report on what I find in mostly rural America, as well as our other expenses.
I very much hope you join me.
Why subscribe?
To help fund the rising expenses of gas and hotels for our wanders and to cover the other expenses and time involved in this venture. To say there is value in my writing and documenting.
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I love creating communities of like minded souls, whether through my writing or our hosting of house concerts or love of landscapes or cooking or whatever else moves me. Our friends are our family whether they are down the street or online across the world. I would love it if you participate in the comments section, and would be honored if you support this work with a subscription.
My interests: Music, food, roadside, wanders, cancer, eating low fodmap, antiques, architecture, gardening, family, friends and a good Regency romance novel.
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