Night Owl Cards

  Today would have been my mom's 84th birthday if she hadn't left us five years ago now. My mom was vigilant when it came to neatness. It was a big deal. Then God laughed and gave her three boys. She waged a mission against messiness daily, but it was often a losing battle.  Out of the three of us, I inherited the neatness gene. But it still wasn't good enough. Before I had my card room, I'd often sort cards in the living room and when my parents came to visit, there would be stacks of cards around the house. My mom would say to my wife, "they're right in the living room ," as if only certain things were allowed in the living room.   She'd be pretty pleased with the card room now. I admit I am, too. I gravitate toward items that make the hobby neater, although my mom probably would be happier with a collector who had just 10 items in their collection and a tiny little display. One of those neatness tools is binder pages. I love how binders and pages tu...

We received the diagnosis on my mom last Wednesday. She has ALS. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Lou Gehrig's Disease. We already knew that she had it. We've known since January. Before that we thought she might have Alzheimer's, or a nerve disease, whose complicated name I once had memorized but so much has transpired since that there's only room for knowledge of what can help my mom right now. It's taken so long to get to this diagnosis because for so many years, my mom was in perfect health, a literal walking example of how to behave physically and mentally when you're in your 70s. My siblings and I now believe -- with the benefit of hindsight -- that she probably had this disease for two or three years already and either didn't realize it or kept it hid (we have found indications that she knew something was wrong). So, even though it feels like it took forever for a diagnosis to be made, many others have said, "it happened so quickly ....