A Saturday Aside

Introducing to you all, Mrs. Queeney. She introduces herself as Mary Lou Queeney, but because she was one of the Moms in the neighborhood where I grew up, I'll only ever be able to call her by her proper name.

Mr. Queeney--who is most memorable in the Ferrone household for having been the one to banish my brother from the Queeney property for seven years, naughty, naughty brother!--recently passed away after his own cancer battle. In the wake of this grief, Mrs. Queeney heard about our news and wrote me a very encouraging note that ended with, "Fight like a girl!"

To date, I think Mrs. Queeney is the only member of NOW whom I personally know, so this meant quite a lot to me.

She has shared a few other experiences from her own road and I'd like to share them with you:

MLQ:

Did I miss it, or did you really forget "Louie, Louie"?

If you backdate from the 50s, you can add "...from the tables down at Morry's (clearly a nickname for Maurice) to the place where Louie dwells...". For you young punk kids, that's the Whiffenpoof Song; the Yale anthem.


AP!: Got Louie on the list now, and I must be a young punk at 34 because I have no idea what "Whiffenpoof" refers to.

MLQ:

Regarding the composer of your own personal song although he spelled it "Amie": Craig Fuller of Pure Prairie League and Little Feat also thinks this area is a great place to live and now he plays the local music scene with his son, Patrick.


AP!: Oh, that song! Do me a favor, Mrs. Queeney, next time you see Craig and Patrick at the coffee house at open mic night. . .ask him whether he hates women.

I Quote:

Aime, what you want to do?
I think I could stay with you
For a while, maybe longer
If I do, I'll be falling in and out of love with you


No thanks, Craig. Move along. I'll wait on a better offer.

MLQ:

Sounds like all the chemo suites came from the same perverted designer, with some local modifications.

At the local hospital, they are curtained off individually, but the visitor only gets the hard chair. Each patient has his/her own TV on a pole. We would bring stacks of business magazines to leave on the racks. Otherwise it was old Good Housekeeping and Family Circle and lots of AARP and Reader's Digest.

AP!: Yes! What is with Family Circle? Do they send their subscriptions for free to these places? They are all over!

MLQ:

In fairness, the "chemo-barn" at the local hospital is sunny and open and kind of a social center in that it's full of well-intentioned volunteers who walk around offering drinks, snacks, old magazines and prayer partners.

Some really social patients used chemo time for coffee klatching. On those days the ambient noise included giggling. The social workers dropped in on their captive potential clients to offer support groups and uplifting reading. Anyone who wanted to catch a nap was out of luck.

AP!: No such people at my chemo-barn. Not that I'm missing them. I think I just need to get used to be a cancer patient so that when I find myself surrounded by other cancer patients, I will not feel so sad.


MLQ:

I committed a crime on one of our last trips. We were leaving the parking lot and Jack was tired and crabby, so when I misjudged how much space I needed to turn our SUV and bumped a little Chevy and wanted to get out and check for damage, he said no, don't bother, he wanted to go straight home.

I obeyed. (Illness does strange things to normal behavior.)

We live about ten minutes away, so we were barely inside and settled when Officer Friendly drives up and asked if I just left the Cancer Center. It seems our GMC Envoy crunched the little Chevy's bumper like a cockroach in full view of the staff and Chevy driver thanks to the open and sunny wall of windows.

I explained that I was only following orders. The cop was very apologetic and said he wouldn't arrest me for leaving the scene of an accident although I clearly deserved it.

At this point Jack walked outside to check out the action. Officer Friendly asked him if he was the co-conspirator, at which point Jack leaned against the squad car with his hands on the roof in the traditional search position.

The upshot is that our insurance paid about $900 and my ticket for unsafe movement was dismissed and I have a good story to tell about the kindness of Pinehurst Police.

AP!:
I love the image of Mr. Queeney assuming the position! What a great sense of humor, and what a great memory to share. Thank you so much, Mrs. Queeney! :-)

And, apparently, we should all plan to retire to Pinehurst, North Carolina.