Monthly archive for May 2009

My beautiful sister Celia

Published on May 20, 2009 in family. 4 Comments Tags: , , .

celia_turleyMy older sister Celia died last Saturday after a short but intense fight with leukemia. She was diagnosed with the disease a week and a half earlier. Because the type of leukemia she had was supposed to be very treatable, my family was optimistic that our sister would pull through. However, Celia’s body didn’t respond well to the chemo that the doctors started her on, and her organs began to shut down a couple of days after she began treatment. After a bad reaction to dialysis, Celia developed a brain aneurysm and never woke up after that. I’ll miss her more than I can ever hope to express.

Those of you who knew Celia know what an amazing person she was. Those of you who didn’t know her, I wish you could have. She was smart, funny, kind — everything a big sister should be. She encouraged my love of reading even before I could tell an A from a Q. We had a deal that I could get in bed with her at night and she would read to me if I let her put her cold feet on my legs to warm them up — I still think I got the better end of that bargain. She always made up original games for me and my brothers and sisters to play, and she came up with the best characters for playing make-believe; Old Dame Dob and Gretchen von Klutz were two of my favorites. Unfortunately, neither of those characters ever made it into any of the numerous family plays she wrote and directed. The audience (Mom, Dad, grandparents) always seemed to love those plays, even though the acting was far from Tony-worthy.

As we grew older, I loved spending hours talking to her. Often when I’d visit her, we’d stay up talking and laughing (she was always laughing — one thing I loved about her) until 2 or 3 in the morning. Then she’d get up at 6 the next day to make sure her kids had everything they needed to make it to school prepared and on time. And she was always cheerful doing it. She was one of my best examples of love, compassion and selflessness in life, and I’m eternally grateful for the time I’ve spent with her.

Update: Here’s a slideshow from Celia’s funeral.

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Climb Ev’ry Mountain

Published on May 18, 2009 in concerts and family. 4 Comments Tags: , , , .

My mom has been teaching music at Joseph City Elementary for almost as long as she’s been a teacher there. Her music students have three performances a year, and the community loves them. Two and a half weeks ago, my mom had her last concert as a full-time teacher because she is retiring at the end of this school year. One of her dreams has always been that her own children would be like the Von Trapp family and sing together, so for her last concert, all of my siblings surprised her with a performance of “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” from “The Sound of Music.” My mom loved it — and we didn’t even have to flee the Nazis afterward.

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Why is Rachael Ray on Sesame Street?

Published on May 4, 2009 in observations. 2 Comments Tags: , .

I haven’t seen Sesame Street in decades, but I spent last night with two of my nieces, and they watch the Street every morning. I looked up from a NYT blog post about Terry Eagleton’s new book to see Rachael Ray cavorting with a muppet tomato. Why? I have nothing against the woman (unless you count my disdain for people who name magazines after themselves and put their own face on the cover of every issue), but does she really have to be that ubiquitous?