I'm back, but first things first: as Ellie dwindles I think of her

I'm sure many of you have visited Ellie's blog, havesomedecorum.blogspot.com - I've been following her battle with ALS. Ellie pulls no punches, holds very little back, is no saintly invalid suffering in martyred silence, but rather, along with good and loving moments, shares frustration, impatience, irritation, rage - ok, she's a real person.

Ellie has made me ask:

 Would I react as she has if I had an inevitably fatal disease? I think so. 

Would I have her desperate courage? I hope so. 

Will I think of her, pray for her, in the days to come? Oh, yes.

                                                       so, with thanks to e.e.cummings,

this is for Ellie:




10 comments:

  1. This is lovely Fred. I too have found her blog highly entertaining, and sad, and full of love, anger and courage. Beautiful tribute.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That is the perfect poem for her. Her light is so very very bright: I cannot imagine it ever dimming.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is so beautiful and perfect for Ellie. She is everything you describe and writes so well it's as though she is sitting down speaking with her readers. As Jen said, her light is so bright. Thanks for this Fred XO

    ReplyDelete
  4. Such a beautiful poem. Fred. The outcome here, as you know , is cruelly inevitable. During the decades of my career, I've had many opportunities to wonder, as you have, how I would react to impending demise. Some people show the way.

    ReplyDelete
  5. That is so powerful, and so fitting.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Where fitting words are impossible to find you managed to do it. Beautiful and powerful. Ellie's blog is a lesson in living .

    ReplyDelete
  7. I wasn't aware of Ellie's blog but have some understanding as it was this disease (MND in the UK) that my father suffered from. We were so lucky that the progression of the disease was slow so he lived for 16 years after diagnosis. My dad coped with it amazingly - never complaining and, through his art, tried to stay positive. But it was so hard, especially for my mum. Bloody awful disease.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Perfect and so sad. You are a good bloggy friend to have

    ReplyDelete

As Alice Roosevelt Longworth said, if you've got anything bad to say, sit next to me! No, really, please remember to be kind, and don't say anything fred's mother would not approve of (Diner's mom didn't approve of anything. Including fred.)
Wellfedfred and the Whining Diner reserve the right to edit or delete any comments submitted to this blog without notice if we find:
1. Comments deemed to be spam or questionable spam
2. Comments including profanity or objectionable language
3. Comments containing concepts that could be deemed offensive
4. Comments that attack a person individually
and since there's been a flood of spam lately, we're trying the Robot thing to see if we can block some spam...