Advocating for health care

We're on the way to getting Life o' Mike incorporated and certified as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit as an advocacy and education organization. That way, we can ask for money and it will be tax deductible. We can write grants to get the cash we need to stage health care rallies and talk to legislators.

I love that my bosses are supporting me in this. I'm not sure most employers would. But then, I don't let it take time from my job. I just don't sleep much so I can fit everything in.

It's pretty exciting. Since I know so many people in the nonprofit world, I'm getting all kinds of advice on where to look for grants, even in this economy.

On the other hand, we're approaching the anniversary of when we learned Mike's cancer was back and he didn't have long to live. I'm reliving those final weeks again and again in my head.

As I put together a board for my little nonprofit, I wish over and over that I didn't need to do this.

***
I went to a conversation on cancer last week and it was pretty good, but it was visioning, and I'm really not into visioning. I want to do something, as did the women in the group I was visioning with.

Talking is fine, as long as it leads to decisions that lead to action. So, the six of us agreed to meet again tonight, and we decided we want to volunteer our time to support cancer patients and their families. We "vision" a larger group of volunteers who can help people based on their own experiences.

I've never had cancer, as all the other women in this group have, but I can support family members. People don't think of them very much. When my ex-husband had colon cancer, everyone was concerned about him, but no one asked his wife how she was doing until I happened to see her at a birthday party for one of the grandkids and asked. She talked to me for an hour about how scared she was and how hard it was to see him so sick.

So, this is something I want to be involved in.

***
Oh, and Robbo wanted me to mention that she still has electricity, and once the ice melts off the solar collector, she'll have adequate hot water again.

New Hampshire is having a miserable winter. It's only risen about freezing once or twice in the last few weeks. She looks at the weather report for Asheville every day and wishes she could have her perfect little house in the woods here instead of in New Hampshire.