A normal day

 I got to get out of the house today. PT, drop off utilities bill at town office, dollar store and post office. Feels good to get errands done. 

I wish I had taken a picture!  I had to run to PT before Casey was settled all the way in his chair. I alway comb his hair because no one does it like mom does :). I came home to Casey’s hair full of pomade, mostly sticking up, and with the comb still in it!  Nurse Staci and Casey thought they were soooo funny!

Nurse Alice had to cancel her overnight. So I’m on duty. I took a nap to prepare.  

Casey and I tried to take a selfie with our new Zeb’s shirts but this is all we got. 

Beautiful day

 We finally had a beautiful, fresh day without too much humidity and NO rain!

Casey slept in until 11 like normal for a Sunday.  Nurse Julie was able to come today so that was good.  Shower and trach change for Casey and then up in his chair and outside!  Chris came, so the three of them sat outside and chatted.  Casey's device was somewhat cooperative.  He had his umbrella and then a receiving blanket to help with his switch since the sun can mess with it.  

I did a bunch of cleaning.  Worked in the laundry room and did some sweeping.  Dog hair galore.  

The Red Sox lost again today.  

Gene worked on mowing and weed whacking.  

That's about it!

Dad

 Dad passed on this day in 2016. Chris and I totally believe that he waited until after my birthday to finally let go. 

I really need to post some different pics of dad. I realized that I have been reposting the same ones. I will have to dig some up. For someone who likes pictures so much, I am not very good at organizing them. 

A little bit of serendipity happened today.  Gene gave me one last little gift; the fruit slices that are kind of jelly and that have sugar all over. Kinda like these. (Not my pic)

One of Dad’s favorites 

He presented them to me and I was kinda stunned. I asked him if he did it on purpose because he knew that dad liked them but he said, no. I guess he just felt like giving them to me today or he forgot yesterday. I don’t know. But I feel like it was a little sign. 

I wasn’t going to open them but Casey wanted me to. I asked him what color and he said red. So I ate it :)

My birthday

 7:15 PM and I could go right to sleep!  Had a big day. 

Nurse Julie came for Casey so Gene could work and I could have a day out. 

Chris came over about 9:30 and then Peggy and Julia picked us up. We headed to The Shelburne Museum. I’ve been many times but the most recent was several years ago and every time the experience is different. They have their regular collections but they also have lots of changing exhibits. 

It was a pretty hot and muggy day but I think we did well. We didn’t complain much!  There are lots of buildings—some modern and some old, some air conditioned and many not!  So we were in and out a lot.  

We had lunch in the cafe.  Nothing extravagant, but it was quiet and clean and the food was good.  Chris and I split a chicken salad sandwich.  Had some chips and iced tea.  Peggy and I had a vanilla/chocolate twist creemee.  It wasn't the best ever, but it was very refreshing.  

I definitely loved the carousel.  I also loved the Mary Cassats and Monets that are in the regular collection.  The circus train (I think 200' long!) was super cool to see again.  And all the period doll houses were awesome.  The Ticonderoga was cool, too.  Dad would have been pleased that we checked it out.  

We did A LOT of walking.  Peggy said her Apple watch said 8000 some odd steps, and that was just at the museum, let alone the rest of the day,.  We only took the shuttle (extra long golf cart kinda thing) once.  It was a nice relief and the breeze was wonderful.

AND GET THIS!  I did not buy anything in the gift shop!  My purse was in the car, so I would have had to have someone else buy it for me, but I didn't feel compelled to buy anything.  It's all beautiful merchandise and I could have picked one of everything but I really am trying to minimize and downsize.  I have pictures to remember our day.  

Made it home by 3 something.  Made it in time to do Book group with Casey.  It was movie day so we watched the new 2023 The Little Mermaid.  

I also got some nice gifts but I won't detail them here :)  I will say that Chris got me an air purifier with a reusable air filter.  We've never had one, believe it or not.  I'm hoping to use it in our bedroom--carpet, dog, cat, etc.  

I'll also say that I enjoyed all the texts, calls and Facebook posts!  It's really fun to read them all, thank you!

Loved the carousel!

The Ticonderoga

Chris in jail!

Me in jail.

Purple flowers for Connor

Casey insisted I open his gift,  "Mom open now.  Present.  Open."  So it was late but Gene took it out of the freezer and unveiled it!  It was a homemade icecream cake that Casey and Nurse Staci made!  It's never too late for icecream so I had a piece before bed :)  It was very yummy.  Gene said they were doing all sorts of things in the kitchen, mixing and crushing and using the Kitchen Aid.  He was very proud.

Here we are at the unveiling.  Best picture that I could get.  If Gene took it, it wouldn't have been much better, haha.

See the cookies in it and the sprinkles??  Yum.

I was very happy when Deb came and I could head up to bed.  Took a while to wind down, but when I fell asleep, I was zonked!

What I did today

 What did I do on my 59 year, 364th day on this earth?  I spent some time with my 6-year-old great nephew!  Nothing better than that to keep you feeling young!  

Let’s see. What did we do?

*he showed me his Minecraft and Roblox, of course. 

*I brought over a bin of Mr Potato Head so we played with those. He liked making a Transformer one. 

I also brought over a couple of games. 

*We played Jumpin’ Monkeys!

I won fair and square!  He was okay with it :) 

*Then we played a Scooby Doo game. He won that one. 

*We also took selfies. 

I don’t know why they’re fuzzy 🤷🏻‍♀️

*We also ran up and down the hallway and around the dining room table. I was bouncing a ball and had to keep bouncing it while trying to catch him. He also used his cool scooter for a bit. We got the okay from RJ as long as we didn’t do it in the kitchen :). 

*We also just chatted and rough housed and looked at some of his toys. 

I love that he is a spontaneous hugger.  🤗. 

Kind of an aha moment

 Casey has 3 pairs of eye glass frames that his switch is mounted on. We’ve been having a heck of a time periodically with his switches and device. Sometimes we think it’s the device.  Sometimes it’s positioning. Sometimes it’s one of the switches. Who knows!  It’s very hard to trouble shoot and someone is not very patient with us which gets us very frustrated. Today we dug out a brand new switch/glasses that I had saved. Put them on and bingo!  Worked perfectly. I think the wires on the others are somewhat compromised and they have to be in the proper position to work right. At least that is what we think today. Who knows what tomorrow may bring!  

Casey and I listened to music while Staci had to go to an appointment. 

Here’s his requested play list:

Chinese music

Black Pink

Heavy metal 

Love songs

He had eclectic taste in music!  

We are so boring

 We used to do more fun things!  Really we did. Covid initially took the wind from our sails and it seems as if we haven’t found it again. Granted, Gene works all week. It’s hot and humid and rainy. And I’m chicken to drive the van far.  Actually I haven’t even driven this van and we’ve had it since November/December. I guess I should remedy that and at least drive into Milton. I’ll put that in my list. 

Other than that. Just regular stuff. Casey had his shower and trach change. The doc messaged me back and we decided to try a longer dose of Ciprodex drops; 10-14 days, twice a day. I’m also going to donut on his g-tube. It’s so weird that when he has something going on around his trach stoma, his g-tube area gets a little affected, too, ans even his bum sometimes. 

Highlight of the day. Julie and Bill came by and helped us figure out placement of two pieces of artwork and helped hang then, too. It was good to see Bill and catch up!  Julie will be here on Friday to work a shift as it’s my birthday and I’m going out on the town!  Don’t get too excited!   

The only pic I took today was of Casey’s trach stoma  I don’t think anyone wants to see that (unless maybe you’re a medical family!)  I came across this one of the boys so I thought I’d post a cute brother pic  

PT for me

 Well, first thing this morning I got a call from Long Trail. They had a cancellation for today so I took it. I got to give Joe (PT) the pictures I found of him in 8th grade from a couple of school events. He laughed!

He had his PT student do most of my eval. He and Joe think that my arm swelling and shoulder pain are not related. We went over a bunch of exercises that I can do to stretch and mobilize my shoulder area and also to strengthen a little. I’m nit very good at picking up on, and remembering each exercise. We’ll see. He gave me a print out and now-a-days there’s a QR code you can scan to get videos of the exercises!   

I finally tried Tiff’s newest macaroni and cheese creation. It was smokier than past servings. She said there was bacon in it as well as the regular ham!

Gene mowed the point. We were supposed to get more thunderstorms but we only heard distant thunder. 

Casey and Staci made big paper towel Sponge Bobs today. I’ll have to take pics and post tomorrow. 

Oh, I messaged pulmonary about Casey’s trach stoma early this am and never heard back!  I doesn’t even look like the message in My Chart was even read. Very odd. They are usually pretty good. I didn’t put it as urgent or anything but still…I’ll have to call if I don’t hear anything by noon. It definitely didn’t look worse when I looked today but it definitely needs help. 

The mundane

Just a regular weekend here.  My highlight was continuing ironing Casey’s receiving blankets.  🤷🏻‍♀️ .  

 I was Nurse Mom last night. Casey was a much better sleeper. I think the cooler, less humid air helped a lot.

We watched an episode of Sweet Tooth. Gave Casey a shower. Settled up in chair. Then I took a Power Nap. Aunt Chris came and sat with Casey. Gene was able to get some mowing in. 

This evening he went in search of a pizza but forgot the pizza card so he ended up with some Italian sausages, peppers and onions. He also picked up a brand new tie dye sweatshirt from the Buy Nothing group. I love it!  Oh and he stopped by Tiff and RJ’s to pick up some of Tiffaney’s ham/mac & cheese. She said it’s her best ever. I look forward to having some for lunch tomorrow!  

According to Peggy, today was the official start of my birthday week!  

A Saturday

 We're pretty boring around here.  

Casey slept until 11AM instead of noon since Nancy H came to do some hours with Casey.  She got him washed up and dressed and all that.  Up in chair.  I set them up with my pc hooked up to the TV (well Gene did that part) so they could play Poptropica.  

I took advantage of Nancy being here to take a quick nap. I have night nurse duty tonight.  

We watched the Red Sox lose this afternoon (game was continued today because of rain delay last night).  

Laundry, formula, Casey's bed, getting things ready for nightshift/tomorrow morning...That's truly about all I did today.  It was kinda soggy out.  Hopefully tomorrow will be a brighter, drier day. 

What has Casey been into Friday

 Today you will be treated to what I like to call, "What Has Casey Been Into, Friday."  Because today is Friday and not much is going on so I will just talk about Casey and what he's been into.  

We usually watch series show on Sunday mornings together.  We watch other things together, especially in the evenings, but that's usually baseball or other sport and singing shows.  We recently finished the 2nd season of Home Before Dark on Apple TV.  All 3 of us loved it and looked forward to our watching time.We just started season two of Sweet Tooth on Netflix.  It is totally not a show that any of us would have thought we would have liked but somehow we clicked on season 1, episode 1 a couple of years ago and we were hooked!  Casey calls it Big Man show.  IYKYK. It's very stressful and exciting.  It's a post apocalyptic drama which is so NOT our thing.  I've never had a desire to watch one second of The Walking Dead.  

Casey is also into Welcome Back Kotter.  On the days we don't have a day nurse, usually Friday and Saturday he watches from bed for a while and during wash up time.  He cackles and laughs a lot.  

When he has ipad time, he likes to watch walkthoughs of computer/wii/other games.  Right now he is into Lego Batman, or "leg go black man" as he will put on his device.  I would probably be easier for him to type b a t than go through pages to get to the word 'black' but that's how Casey rolls.  

When he is in his chair and has access to our TV, he likes to flip through the channels.  Sponge Bob is still a favorite that he will stay on.  But he really enjoys the Music Choice channels on Xfinity.  He likes: Solid Gold Oldies, 80s, Stage and Screen, and Sounds of the Seasons.  It's Christmas in July right now so he really likes that.  

....

Today was okay.  Regular stuff.  Aunt Chris came over and sat with Casey and they did their thing.  We're having a thunderstorm right now as I type.  Crazy big one early this morning. 

In book group we watched Lion King 2 in honor/memory of Connor. Got to Zoom with Karen and Shannon for a little bit this morning.  

Gene is on his way to get some lobsters.  They always have a deal on them in July  I imagine they are the soft shell ones.  He said we are having a little pre-birthday celebration for me. One week from today I turn a milestone age!

I never seem to talk much about Molly Sue.  So here are a couple of pics from today, and hopefully, a video.  Gene found this at Costco and thought she would like it.  Guess what?  She loves! 

My ouch

 For quite a while now I've had pain in my arms.  Makes sense since I am one of the main caregivers for Casey.  He requires lots of attention :)  A lot of the attention he needs is physically moving him.  We have a Hoyer type sling and lift to get him into his chair, but even that requires a lot of physically moving him to get the sling under him, etc.  When he is not in his chair, he is on a high/low table.  He needs to be 'flipped' from side to side about every two hours.  Casey isn't huge, but he is pretty solid and cannot move himself at all to help us.  So my arms get a lot of use.  I used to have pain and weakness in my forearms/wrists and although it is still there, it's not as bad as it once was (or am I just getting used to the pain?).  

Since at least December of 2022 I've had pain and swelling in my left arm.  Actually, for quite a long time it wasn't painful, but the swelling is pretty obvious, especially in my wrist area.  My chiropractor would do some work on my arm and it would feel better for awhile.  In January, he put in a request for me to get an xray to see if there was anything in there that needed attention.  But I never got it done.  I would occasionally take Naproxen but I didn't like to take it too much because I worry what that would do to my blood pressure.  But lately my arm has been really hurting/aching/throbbing so I finally decided to do something about it and called the doctor.  Believe it or not, they had an appointment for this morning!  

Went to appointment.  It was with a young resident.  She was very nice and attentive and took all the time she needed to hear me out and had me do all sorts of physical movement.  She narrowed it down to my upper shoulder.  Something about there's a compartment there and when it's inflamed it get smaller and is painful.  She called it Rotator Cuff impingement or degeneration.  Ugh.  I'm to take prescription strength Naproxen for 2 weeks around the clock, I can use the diclofenac gel as needed, ice on and off, and they will have me go to PT for a couple of sessions to get some exercises.  If it doesn't get better I can see their sports doc and see about injections.  

So there.  That's a lot about me!

We also had someone from UVM Home Health or whatever its called (our VNA nursing merged with our hospital) come for a bit.  She was from Human Resources.  She has to do with business and recruiting.  She wants to get to know the high tech nurses and what their jobs are really like.  She wasn't here very long before she had an emergency call and had to leave.  Oh well.  Maybe she'll schedule another time to come back.  It's good to know that someone is interested in what the high tech home care nurses do.  They seem to be forgotten a lot of the times.  

Also, Casey's trach stoma looked pretty red when we changed out his trach today.  Not sure if it's yeasty or a bacterial thing.  So, we are going to use Nystatin at night and Mupirocin during the morning care.  And see what happens.  

It was a Wednesday

 Not much happening here.  Casey was a better sleeper last night.  Only 2 extra flips early in the night.  It was a much more pleasant sleeping night so that helped.  

Nurse Staci and Casey did their thing.  Some music, some art, etc.  He said he had a pee belly so we got him down to his table earlier than norm.  

I managed a short nap.  

Finished putting away enteral and medical supplies.  

Swept up a pound of dog hair.  

Wow.  Pretty mundane but thankful :)

Back to book club

Highlight of the day was getting back to book club. I only teared up once!  Okay, maybe twice. 

We had Shannon and Addy, me and Casey, Jennifer and Hannah, Christy and Sara, Sarah and Stella, and Karen!  Sara managed to stay on the whole time. She’s not much of a book person but maybe we can hook her in. Shannon started The Witch of Blackbird Pond. It’s a little bit more ‘serious’ book than we’ve read lately. I hope the kids will like it. 

Karen was kinda on and off listening. She babysat her niece and nephew today so she was busy.  

At one point, Casey said “Karen looks sad. Casey sad.”  (Never have figured out why he uses his name instead of “I”. Actually, I don’t know where the word I is on his device. I mean, it’s not very hard to find the letter I and select it, but Casey doesn’t like to use the keyboard.  Note to self: something we need to work on. 

What else. Both enteral and medical supplies came this evening at like 8PM!  I feel for the UPS people!  Such a muggy day. 

Oh I was nurse Mom last night. Casey was a restless one. Finally towards morning he slept better and didn’t need as much flipping or attention. Nurse Mom on again tonight!

muggy, bleck

 So we had an uneventful day.  Another muggy and hot one.  I should probably have turned on the AC in the yellow room (where we are now) but didn't.  I don't know why.  

Nurse Alice called our for tonight. She hates doing that but she had a rough, painful weekend.  Seeing doc tomorrow.  I hope they can help her.  I tried a couple of times to take a rest but not very successful.  Hopefully Casey will be a good sleeper for me tonight.  

Got to do a quick Zoom with Shannon and Karen this afternoon.  Karen is pretty firm about us continuing Book Group.  She said she will be a guest reader and also visit with us.  So that's good.  It will never be the same. 

We had a tele health appointment with Casey's new neurologist.  We met her in person, maybe 6 months ago?  I figured tele health would be sufficient.  We have to keep seeing neurology so they can prescribe Everysdi.  They are still working on the MDA clinic.  I hope they set it up before germ season!  It would be nice to see all of Casey's specialists at one time in the Fall.  

I treated myself to a homemade frozen hot chocolate this afternoon.  It helped to take my internal body temperature down a bit.  

Casey is watching Night at the Museum.  Gene has to go out and get a bolt for the toilet seat that broke...I'm going to get things ready for my night nursing duties.  

….

So I need to add this. I think we had a visit from Connor today, or maybe Connor and Collie. When Casey gets flipped to his other side in the afternoon/evening, he doesn’t use his device. It gives his eyes a break from all the blinking he had to do to use his switch. Sometimes I shut the device down totally and sometimes I put it to sleep. For whatever reason, I decided to put it to sleep. This new device can be a little tricky to access the area and spot which you then touch to do a Restart, Sleep, Shutdown, etc. So I always take time to be deliberate in what I do because in the past I’ve hit the wrong one before. Casey watches me while I do this. He has eagle eyes. I hit the start menu found the area and specifically touched and slightly held the ‘sleep’ area. The machine did what it usually does and closed and went dark. Casey and I continued in our flipping ritual. More than a full two minutes later, the device started up again and loaded like I had hit restart. Casey and I looked at each other quizzically because we both saw how deliberate I was in picking Sleep. I felt a little prickle on my arms and immediately thought CONNOR EUGENE!!!  It would be just like him to mess with Casey’s device!  And then I felt a something between a prickle and a tickle and I thought COLIN EUGENE!!  Casey agreed with me wholeheartedly!  

Connor EUGENE!

 

Our buddy, Connor

 

Okay, so his name is really Connor William Reilly.  He is the son of my best friend, Karen.  She and her husband, Bill, have 2 older boys, Tim and Owen.  Why did I title this Connor Eugene??  Well, trying to remember some of our ordinary, yet fun times.  We would see Karen and Connor in our Zoom Book Group Monday-Friday from 4-5:30.  It was ordinary because we did it every week day since March of 2020.  Thank Covid for that.  I mean really, thank you, Covid, for bringing a group of us together to do ordinary things like chatting and reading books/magazines, and watching movies on Fridays.  Fun, because our group was made of 'kids' and adults who are like us, meaning the kid has SMA.  How could that be fun?  It was fun because there was absolutely no need to be anything other than ourselves.  We could just be us and enjoy each other and have FUN.  We laughed and we giggled and we shared our lives.  Fun to us was just doing our thing while being connected by the Internet.  

So why Connor Eugene, and not Connor William or just plain old Connor?  Well, there are a lot of Eugene's in our family.  Eugene Paul (Gene's dad), Eugene Nelson (Gene), Tyler Eugene (our nephew) and our Casey Eugene.  Somehow, whenever anyone did something 'wrong' or silly or over-the-top, I would call them 'Blank Eugene.'  You know, like when your parents used your whole name when you were little and got into trouble :)  Connor LOVED his Tobii communication device and was almost always on it during group.  Sometimes he would get a little sassy :)  He would activate his Google and ask it to play something and it would activate Shannon's (another book friend) devices.  It was very funny!  He would ask it to play a Christmas song or Elton John, or a song from The Lion King.  He would also sometimes interrupt Karen when she was reading to us.  Sometimes he would come to group after his bath and he wouldn't have a shirt on yet and we would tease him.  Things like that would prompt me to say, "Connor EUGENE"!   I guess you had to be there...but we loved it.  He had his Honor Walk on July 9, 2023 and will forever be loved and missed. 

 

Casey picked out this Beatles design

 

I picked this one

Today was his Celebration of Life.  It was beautiful and heart wrenching.  Thankfully Karen's sister had her laptop set up in the main room of the venue so we could participate virtually.  I bought us each a purple Beatles shirt to wear.  Connor's favorite color and his favorite musical group.  

Lots of our sma friends tuned in and lots of the Reilly's friends from all over.  Mostly we just watched what we could and did a little chatting in the Zoom chat.  Peg B came over and we talked with her and she got Karen to come over and visit with us a little bit.  Karen took us around and showed us the areas set up with all things Connor.  There was an area of his school things, Beatles things, things from his room, his chair, etc.  Peg took pics, too.  I may post some here.  

Karen looked cute.  She went out to buy some new clothes and found some 'yellow submarine pants' to wear. She was very adamant about celebrating Connor's life and not dwelling on the sadness.  For the most part, I did okay.  Then Karen scanned by the pic in a frame I had sent them of me holding Connor when he was little.  I remember that moment vividly.  We were visiting the Reillys in MA and I had always wanted to hold and snuggle Connor.  Karen was very diligent about being as germ free around Connor as possible to keep him his healthiest.  But she acquiesced.  I was fresh from the shower with a clean nightgown that I had and she let me hold him!  He looks a little astonished in the pic. I love it! 

Connor was Casey's best friend.  They grew up together.  Yes, he was 5 or so years younger but we've known Connor since he was 6 weeks old!  Casey.  I'm not sure what he's really thinking or feeling.  He's said things with his device and we've tried our best to convey to him, that he is now in Heaven with Colin and so many SMA friends and some of his family members.  I don't think it's quite hit him 100% yet that we will not see him again until we leave this earth.  A funny thing is that he hoped there would be a priest and bagpipes at the celebration, like we had for his Grandpa O.  We tried to explain that Grandpa O had a traditional Catholic funeral and this was a non religious (but spiritual) celebration of life, like a party.  During the time we were on Zoom he said, "sad about Connor" so maybe the reality is hitting him.  

Our setup

 

Some Zoom participants and our purple sign

This was our setup.  Laptop zoom on sign "We love you Connor."  The laptop was hooked up to our TV so we could watch.  I had the ipad on another Zoom so that Casey (and I) were in the little Zoom box. Aunt Chris was here wearing her purple and watching, too.  Hopefully I will get a pic of Gene in his shirt later.  Or maybe the three of us...

We watched and sent our love through Zoom for a couple of hours. I was drained from doing just that.  I can't imagine how wrung out Karen and family will be afterwards.  💔.  

I'll end here for now.  I may add some more words or put up some more pics later on.  

But for now,

WE LOVE YOU, CONNOR EUGENE!

Back to it!

 Well, an SMA friend and I were messaging tonight. Long story but Elton John was brought up. I was remembering the concert we saw back in 2008 (July 21st ). So I started poking around Facebook looking to see if I had any pics. I thought I did but thought the show may have been before I joined Facebook…Then, I thought of my old trusty Live Journal. I found the entries! (Oh and reading back the entry reminded me that cameras and recording equipment were not allowed so that is why I only have a few phone pics that Kathy snapped of us!)  Reading the entries revived many memories and gave me the spark to want to record out life again. We certainly don’t do a lot of exciting things these days but I think it’s still worth recording  

Today was a pretty average, not exciting day. It was super muggy and pretty hot. No Saturday day nursing coverage. So Gene and kinda took turns with Casey’s care. He did great in his chair today. Lots of turn heads (left, right, left right) but zero butt complaints. 

Pic above is Casey watching a YouTube video game walkthrough.  Each evening we flip to his right side AKA alternative side, and he takes a break from using his device and watches a walkthrough or occasionally a movie.  The last couple of days we have watched a very long Lego City Undercover.  Thank goodness for long walkthoughs! 

Gene worked hard outside. Tomorrow will be rainy so he had to get some mowing in. He also worked in our front area a little. It was totally weedy and overgrown and looked like crap. We just haven’t had the time or decent weather to work on it like other years. The front garden was never finished nor did we finish the rock part that I started to redo. He and I took all the rocks out and that was it. We need to lay down a barrier, sort out the rocks/weeds and replace. We’ll see if it ever happens. 

Gene plans on going out with Lucky tonight after Nurse Deb gets here. I plan on putting the AC on upstairs and reading my book for a short while anyway. Red Sox already played and lost so I don’t have to fret over the game. 

My heart has been heavy all week  Tomorrow is Connor’s Celebration of Life.  I pray Karen, Bill and the boys get through it okay.  I know they’ve been working board all week getting things together to make it a special celebration.  We’ll be watching on Zoom.  I bought Gene, Casey and I purple Beatles shirts to wear on his honor/memory. 💜 💔💜