Author: Joanne Corey

Please come visit my eclectic blog, Top of JC's Mind. You can never be sure what you'll find!

losing Joan

(Photo by July on Unsplash)

I got news yesterday of the death of a college friend.

Joan and I met in Ron Perera‘s first-year music theory class. Like me, Joan was a western Massachusetts native and a Catholic with close ties to her family. She was a talented violinist. I remember her giving a demonstration to our theory class, showing us all the techniques used to create different sonorities for us to use in our compositions.

For junior year, Joan went to the University of Michigan and decided to transfer there to finish her education. However, “once a Smithie, always a Smithie,” Joan remained a member of the Smith College class of ’82.

Joan went on to a successful career playing in orchestras, concluding with a long tenure with the Kennedy Center Opera Orchestra in Washington, DC. Her performance schedule kept her busy but, two years ago, she was able to attend our 40th reunion in Northampton, visiting family in the area which hadn’t been possible during the height of the pandemic. While we had been keeping in touch over the years, it was the first time in decades that we had seen each other and it was great. We started speculating where we would each be living post-retirement when our 45th reunion rolled around.

Right after reunion, Joan developed COVID. Fortunately, she wasn’t very sick but she was bummed about missing some of her opera performances.

It was a shock when she was diagnosed with acute lymphoma that fall. She immediately began chemotherapy. Due to the intensity of the treatment and her weakened immune system, she had to stay at home, where her husband Paul was her loving and capable caregiver.

In summer of last year, Joan was able to resume performing while her treatment migrated to a maintenance regimen. This January, she was posting about the orchestra.

And, sometime since, her remission ended and the cancer came back with a vengeance.

I didn’t know.

Early this month, I had emailed her some new photos of my granddaughters and Joan sent a reply about how beautiful they are. Sending photos had been something I had done during her home-bound period and continued to do from time to time. I am grateful that I was unknowingly able to add a moment of love and beauty to her final weeks.

Hearing the news of Joan’s death from our Smith friends was a shock and brought waves of tears. It’s also brought to mind this recent Washington Post article, raising the disturbing prospect that SARS-CoV -2 infection may play a role in the development of cancer, particularly rare or unusual ones. It will take years of research to determine whether or not this is the case but the mystery of it all is disquieting.

The final commendation at Joan’s funeral will begin, “May the angels lead you into Paradise.” May there be a beautiful violin waiting for you there, Joan.

Father’s Day in absentia

Photo Credit: Andrea Eastman

Today is celebrated as Father’s Day in the United States. My dad, known here at Top of JC’s Mind as Paco, passed away in 2021. My spouse B, father to our daughters E and T, is visiting with extended family in Maine; T is with him but I wasn’t able to make the trip.

Because of all that, I wasn’t really planning to observe Father’s Day today but I got an email from my younger sister, asking if I had a hard copy of the photo above. Nana and Paco had this portrait taken at Eastman Studios in Binghamton, New York, after they retired here. I don’t have an exact date, but I’m guessing it was taken in the late 1980s-early ’90s.

I went upstairs to look for it in the two large bags of photo albums and framed pictures that we had taken home from Paco’s last apartment. The first album I picked up was one that my sister had put together for one his last Father’s Days.

Of course, this photo was part of the album.

I spent some time going through it. It begins with photos from Nana and Paco’s youth and their wedding in 1954. There are photos of my sisters and me growing up, our home, extended family, and travels. Later, there are photos of them with their grandchildren and finally photos of their great-granddaughters.

So, I did get to spend time with my dad today and see his smile – multiple times.

Happy Father’s Day, Dad.

Miss you.

SoCS: to be continued

I briefly considered trying to stream-of-consciousness style sum up the last couple of weeks but thought better of it.

When I do manage to get that post together I’ll come back here to add the link.

[Update here.]
*****
Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week was sum, either alone or as part of a longer word. Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/06/14/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-june-15-2024/

One-Liner Wednesday: hope

Hope is not the certainty that things will turn out as we wish, but the conviction that some things are worth doing no matter how they turn out.

Vaclav Havel

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/06/12/one-liner-wednesday-how-many-hours/

D-Day Anniversary

(Photo by Lucas Sankey on Unsplash)

On June 6th, we observed the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the D-Day invasion, in which Allied Forces landed in France, beginning the campaign that ended World War II in Europe.

President Biden spoke at a ceremony honoring the anniversary and the United States veterans of D-Day, now all in their upper 90s or centenarians, held at the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France. Earlier in the ceremony, after his address, French president Emmanuel Macron, had presented each veteran with a commendation with President Biden by his side.

I appreciated President Biden’s address, which recalled individual stories of that day while lifting up the democratic principles for which the war was fought. Biden spoke about NATO and the commitment to international alliances to protect and defend freedom and democracy. He also spoke about the bravery of Ukraine in defending their democracy against the invasion by Russia. He called on the current people of the United States to defend our democracy today.

After Biden spoke, a service member read “The Watch” symbolically relieving the honored veterans and all World War II veterans of duty.

And I started crying.

I was thinking of my father, known here as Paco, who was a World War II veteran who passed away two years ago at the age of 96. Paco served as a Navy SeaBee in the Pacific. Seeing the veterans in attendance and hearing these tributes to them made me miss him so much more.

He didn’t speak very often of his service in his younger years and, with so many veterans of his age, it wasn’t much noted as the majority had been in the service. In his retirement years, though, he often wore a SeaBees or Navy veteran cap and it was sweet to see store clerks or random passersby thank him for his service.

He would have loved today’s ceremony.

He might have cried, too.

One-Liner Wednesday: prescience

I do not want to see the Republican party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny—Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear.

– Senator Margaret Chase Smith (Republican – Maine) addressing the Senate on June 1, 1950 near the beginning of McCarthyism

Please join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/06/05/one-liner-wednesday-snakes-on-a-plane/

SoCS: scones

I just finished eating some yummy apple cinnamon scones that B made.

It’s a recipe that he developed starting from a Bisquick base, so it is quick to put together. Less measuring than working totally from scratch, which he also does.

One of my favorite scratch recipes is his pumpkin scones, for which we often use frozen honey nut squash. Well, you do have to thaw the squash first. In the fall when the farm stands are about to close and are selling winter squash by the box, we often buy a bunch of honey nut squash to bake, mash, and portion out to freeze so that we can use it for recipes for months to come.

But today, the apple cinnamon scones hit the spot.

Starting from the Bisquick base, it’s easy to make lots of variations. Besides fresh fruits, like apples, peaches, or plums, we use dried fruits, such as cranberries, currants, or raisins. There are lots of variations for the recipe, depending on what you have on hand.

We also add a bit of sugar, white or brown, and spice, often cinnamon but possibly nutmeg or cardamon, depending on what we use for fruit.

I hope I’m not making you hungry….
*****
Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “recipe.” Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/05/31/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-june-1-2024/

Vote for Democracy ’24 #8

34 felony convictions, 54 counts waiting for trial dates.

(Photo by Lucas Sankey on Unsplash)

Late afternoon yesterday, May 30, 2024, a former president of the United States, Donald Trump, was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in a case brought by the state of New York by the elected district attorney of New York County, Alvin Bragg, after a grand jury of citizens voted to bring the charges.

This is the first time a US president has been charged with felonies and found guilty. President Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon before any charges could be brought.

The State of New York has jurisdiction to bring the charges because the business records in question were in the state. Falsification of business records is usually a misdemeanor but was raised to a felony here because it was being done with the intent to commit another crime, in this case, violation of New York State election law. This case relates to the 2016 election, when Donald Trump authorized paying a woman to keep her from going to the press with a story about a sexual encounter that would have been potentially damaging to his campaign in the final weeks, shortly after the release of the Access Hollywood tape, in which Donald Trump made light of his habit of sexually assaulting women. The business records were falsified in a scheme to conceal the payment.

The prosecution spent several weeks presenting documents and other evidence and testimony from twenty witnesses. Trump’s defense was much briefer, only two witnesses. The jury deliberated for about nine and a half hours over two days and returned a guilty verdict on all 34 counts.

This is the way the criminal justice system should work in the United States. It’s not the elected or appointed officials who decide the case. It’s a jury of one’s peers. Jurors are sworn to consider only the evidence presented and the law in reaching their verdict. While Trump’s followers made it seem that a New York jury would be made exclusively of Democrats with a grudge against him, we know that the jurors had a range of news sources, including one who got their news from Trump’s social media site, Truth Social. All the jurors swore, though, to set aside any preconceived notions and deliberate together to reach a unanimous verdict.

Sentencing is set for July 11. The sentence will be decided by the presiding judge, Juan Merchan. It could include up to four years in prison but could be probation, instead. After sentencing, there will likely be an appeal. The Republican party convention, which is expected to nominate Trump as their presidential choice for the November election, begins July 15.

Meanwhile, Trump is awaiting trial on 54 more felonies in three cases, a State of Georgia election interference conspiracy case, a federal case of mishandling sensitive presidential documents in Florida, and the federal case around the January 6 attack on the US Capitol in Washington, DC.

I will not vote for a convicted felon who has not served their sentence and taken responsibility for their actions.

I hope that most Americans also hold that view.

Many prominent Republicans are attacking the judicial system rather than affirming the verdict of twelve sworn jurors in New York. I also will not vote for a candidate for any office that does not respect the rule of law. Public officials are sworn to uphold and defend our Constitution and laws. The transcript of the NY trial is available and demonstrates that the law was being followed and applied. For an elected official to attack the US justice system as being worse than those in countries like Cuba is disqualifying for me as a voter.

Applying the law “without fear or favor” is a hallmark of the United States judicial system. All voters should pay attention to the views of candidates toward the rule of law when deciding for whom to vote.

One-Liner Wednesday: AGO Members concert!

Binghamton area folks are cordially invited to attend the Members Recital of our local chapter of the American Guild of Organists on Sunday, June 2, 2024 at 4 PM at the United Presbyterian Church of Binghamton, 42 Chenango Street.

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/05/29/one-liner-wednesday-wisdom/

No-Mow May

In the United Kingdom and parts of the United States, there is an initiative called No-Mow May, encouraging people not to mow lawns (or a portion thereof) during the month of May in order to encourage the blossoming of wildflowers which provide food for bees, butterflies, and other pollinators.

In the spirit of No-Mow May, we have limited our lawn mowing in our front yard and left most of the back yard to grow on its own. The front yard starts things off with dandelions, which we let blossom but then wind up having to mow for propriety’s sake. B leaves the lawnmower on the highest setting, though, so that the spent dandelion stems get cut while sparing the violets and white clover that follow. Even though white clover is not native, our bumblebees seem to enjoy it. It’s also helpful that we use a battery-powered mower so that the plants don’t have to contend with the heat and exhaust of burning gasoline.

Besides those, the backyard has waves of additional flowers, including wild strawberry, bluets, forget-me-nots, speedwell, buttercups, celandine, ground ivy, and fleabane. While these help our pollinators, they also provide food for other animals, including rabbits.

Besides the lawn, we have other spring-flowering plants, including bleeding hearts, PJM rhododendron, dwarf daffodils, lily-of-the-valley, brunnera, amsonia, and our heirloom rose bush.

Although not all the plants are native, our native pollinators frequently visit them, which is important to us, especially our bumblebees. When we had a landscape plan drawn up and planted in fall 2020, we requested native plants, but some of the plants that grow wild in our yard are non-native species that are now considered naturalized in our area, though not invasive. If we do find invasive species, such as garlic mustard, growing, we try to pull them out so that they don’t spread. It is also helpful that we have had wildflowers growing as part of our lawn for decades. We never use herbicides. The mix of plants and not mowing it too short also make our lawn drought-resistant. We never have to waste water by spraying it on our lawn.

We may stretch No-Mow May into early June in the backyard so that the daisies that have started to grow up but haven’t blossomed yet have a chance to do so. Perhaps, B will do what he has done in some past years and mow around the daisies until they have had a chance to flower.

Do people observe No-Mow May – or some variation better suited to your geography, like Low-Mow May or No-Mow April, where you live?