It’s 6 am, the sun is rising on another Sacramento day. Looking “forward” to yet another 100 degree day. It never seems to matter how busy my life is – I always seem to come back to wanting/needing to write, like since I was fourteen years old? And today is no different.
In a nutshell, I’m a 71 year old woman – 1/2 Hispanic, 1/2 Caucasian Heinz 57 (IYKYK lol!) – Mother of 2 adult children (46 and 50), grandmother to two adult “boys” (23 and 27), and great grandmother to two little boys (3 years old and 5 months old). This right here is the most important part of my life – always has been, always will be – FAMILY!
I’ve been married 3 times – widowed from my children’s father in 1992 after 23 years of marriage (a difficult marriage due to mental health issues he had that we didn’t know about until he was in his mid-late 20’s – back then it was called manic depression – now it’s called Bi-Polar Disorder). My second marriage I call my “brain fart marriage” because I knew it was for all the wrong reasons – 9 years of wrong reasons. My third marriage was to the love of my life – we’ve been in each other’s lives for fourteen years now, were married for 5 (now divorced for 6 but still “bff”s).
I work in the Hospitality Industry (hotels) and have for 53 years. I love with a passion what I do, and don’t yet see myself retiring any time in the immediate future.
I live with my son (who also is diagnosed with Bi-Polar Disorder, PTSD and Anxiety Disorder) and not too far from my daughter (same diagnoses as her brother) and the love of my life (one hell of a nice guy).
When the pandemic began, on April 1, 2020 I was diagnosed with HPV P-16+ Squamous Cell Carcinoma Head & Neck Cancer – after an extremely aggressive 7-week treatment of chemo and radiation and a year of healing from the radiation I am now two years down NED – No Evidence of Disease. This will be a whole other post due to the rising number of cases in Baby Boomers and why we have our grandkids vaccinated for HPV.
In spite of my life challenges, I love my life, my adventures, appreciate my life lessons. And believe me, after my diagnosis, I very quickly gained an even greater appreciation for every single day I have. I’ll take every one!
And on last thing? My favorite place in the world? Hawaii.
Join me … in gratitude!
The Barefoot Boomer 