Does anyone have any happy news to share?

The good news in my life is that my husband is alive & well after a successful liver transplant on April 29th at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix! His numbers are stabilized to the point where he's been 'promoted' from weekly blood tests to bi monthly instead. He's gone from taking around 40 meds per day down to about 8 meds per day!

Even though my mother passed away on 2/22/22 of this year and I've had that loss to contend with, there have been blessings galore to celebrate as well. My first grandson (biological) will be turning 2 in a couple of months & my other grandson was accepted into the national gifted program here in Denver (at 5 years old, he's doing square roots and 'doubles' up to 1 million).

An attitude of gratitude will prevail in our lives forevermore, and we're grateful to God for all of our blessings in 2022 and look forward to all that await us in 2023.

My neighbor in Alice Springs faced their tourist business going into liquidation when Covid closed state and international borders. It meant potential personal bankruptcy, a very very stressed husband, and two daughters not coping well. I expressed my sympathy, and she said “We have a roof over our heads and enough to eat. It’s not so bad”. The courage we all need!

I'm with the thankful for "a roof over my head and food to eat" group. It's been a difficult year for us too, deaths, dd with cancer... but we've made it so far.

@fawnby, I am so sorry you lost your son. My deepest condolences. I lost my youngest son over 20 years ago, Losing a child is the most painful loss.

My grandson is excelling in school and enjoys working at his part-time job. He lives too far away for us to visit, but I talked to him on the phone yesterday and am encouraged by his ambition and enthusiasm. His dad, my son, died two years ago, and I’m happy that my grandson is thriving despite this heartbreaking loss.

It has been a rough year or past several years for many of us. Deaths of loved ones, health conditions of others, and so on.

My husband has been receiving good reports from his oncologist and urologist regarding the treatment of his prostate cancer. I am truly grateful for that.

I adore my husband. I think I fell in love with him the instant that I saw him. We were young when we first met.

He was the handsome bartender at a restaurant that I went to with my friends and a student at Tulane University. I arrived early to meet my friends for dinner and decided to order a drink from the bar. He asked me out for that Friday night and I said yes. The rest is history.

We love spending time with our daughters. They mean the world to us.

My condolences to all of you that has lost their loved ones. We miss them but we are fortunate that we are able to cherish our memories.

I don’t have grandchildren but I do have a beautiful granddog from my younger daughter and a cute grandkitties. from my older daughter.

Everyone is busy these days but it’s nice to spend time with family and friends. The best things in life are free.

Mmm... I got my mom to think that all of her mental disruptions aren't scary but are, in fact, hilarious. (specially as we've noticed that about 70% of them are caused by...drumroll.... morphine at any dose higher than a single milligram. yay. End-stage cOPD wants more than a milligram tho. Ah well.)

At 80 it is a gift to feel well and content and to have a partner who feels the same. I think in general is is more and more clear to me how lucky we are in our country, our democracy, and in the fact our recovery is doing so well in this time of inflation compared to so much of the rest of the world. I feel newly hopeful about Covid 19 which seems to be certainly still prevalent and due for a post- holiday surge, but that is no longer the killer it once was, a weakening virus at this time. I still love all the things I always loved, reading and walking and nature, good friends and loving family. I feel very lucky indeed. I want to wish everyone a very happy and healthy new year.

I've adopted my uncle's outlook. Anytime I asked him how he was doing he always said "I woke up above ground". I've had so much happen in the last two years that seems like a good answer.

As someone already said, I agree that having a roof over our head and food to eat is good news. For everything else, for the not-so-good stuff...this too shall pass...it always does... and that is good news indeed.

Last year was my toughest year yet, dealing with our mom and dad’s poor health, dementia and youngest caregiving sister’s, intense desire to keep them isolated, safe and no one else in their world. I finally cut ties with my abusive, mean spirited third down sister, so our family is officially broken. BUT……I’m still sober, 38 plus years, working those steps that bring sanity, relief and hope. More good news…..

I visited my mom and dad, with my best friend sister, who was raised the same as me, taught to take care of ourselves, not enabled our whole lives. I hadn’t seen them since the BEST visit ever, outside in my garden, listening to the spring birds, on May 22nd. I never thought I wouldn’t see them again, until two days before Christmas. But this year, I had to let our two youngest sisters know, treating us respectfully and without attitude, was our boundary. They’ve been telling us their boundaries for years, while having zero respect for us older sisters. So I went silent. It was overdue, and it made a point.

Happily, my relationship with our caregiving sister has improved enough, that I will reach out, and visit our folks, every couple months. She insists we all use masks, for every visit, cause her covid fear is deep, and she is going to keep them safe for the rest of her life. We understand caution, but we also feel the older three sisters should be able to not use masks, just like the caregiver, but to ask would only result in a smirk, and, “nope, our doc says we must.” Good news, I am not going to let that stop me from visiting my folks, and I better understand now, visits are not easy. So it is ok to visit less, and not feel guilty. The sad thing is that mom doesn’t understand anyone with masks on, she hates them, so she will not talk, and she can no longer hear. A new thing, since spring, and it removed her from our visit, in a way that was sad. But until she could not hear what her caregiving daughter was saying, she said nothing about her hearing problem to us older sisters.

Our big sister guilt was tough to overcome, that we are not allowed to help our mom and dad, that they only want the daughter that has been with them for 49 plus years. She is their comfort person, not their oldest daughters, who are aging much more actively, than our parents chose, and that affected their life a great deal.

I tend to choose to be optimistic, and living one day at a time helps me immensely. I love my parents so much, miss them dearly, but the best news is that 2023 is going to be good, some tears will fall, but no more dwelling on guilt. I did nothing wrong. Doing my best, and renewed my commitment to my sister, that when you want and/or need help, you must let me know, cause I will not bother you with offers, just know “if I can help, I will”. We think she better appreciates my words, since I disappeared for a spell. She may be stressed, but she still must be nice. Take care, and I understand how hard this is. Not from a caregiver POV, but as a daughter that has watched her mom and dad slip away, and nothing I can do, to get them back. ♥️♥️♥️