Monday, March 19, 2007

Martha Malcom Rollins (1951-2007)

My first cousin Anthony's wife Martha died Friday. Lately, it seems that this blog has had more than its share of deaths.

We went to the funeral home and the funeral. Martha was a grammar school teacher and an active church member. For several weeks she knew her time was ending soon.

She planned her own funeral. She had one of her sons play the piano at the service. The son is on musical scholarship in Rome and is to graduate soon. His music was beautiful. She died of ovarian cancer that should have been caught, if they knew the symptoms. She requested the symptoms be printed on her Memory card the funeral home hands out. She also requested that Anthony give tell the symptoms to the people attending the funeral, which Anthony did, with tears in his eyes.

In Martha's memory, here are the things to look out for:

Vague abdominal and pelvic discomfort.
Bloating.
Feeling of pressure in pelvic area.
Unexplained changes in bowel habits.
Unexplained weight gain or loss.
Feeling of fullness, even after a small meal.
Fatigue.
Pain during intercours.

6 comments:

kenju said...

I have never seen anything like that on a funeral memory card, Eddie, but I guess it is a good idea. It's too bad it wasn't caught sooner.

Eddie said...

Judy,
I think her husband Anthony will have some lonely days ahead of him

Anonymous said...

Best wishes to the family, Ed.

Eddie said...

Steve,
Thanks.

EHT said...

My mom-in-law was diagnosed at stage 4 four years ago. She has had massive doses of chemo, etc. A teacher friend of mine caught hers too late and she left us. It is a very fast moving cancer and masks the symptons of a virus. It also runs in families from mother to daughter.

Eddie said...

eht,
I knock on wood from time to time. I smoked for too many years and sometimes I think an army of cancer soldiers are hidden in little places in my lungs, just sitting around playing cards and watching tv, waiting on the word from their leader to attack and take no prisoner.