Reaching out

When I was under going treatment for breast cancer, there were certain people I never heard from who I thought were my friends. I knew they knew too and it made me sad. But in some ways, it was my 'just desserts' for turning the other way when I knew other acquaintances were dealing with difficult issues.

Recently I've heard through the grapevine that an acquaintance has metastatic  breast cancer. We were in 2 different sets of car pools back in Josh's middle and high school days. A depressing carpool at that. Ann Arbor is a very diverse place in many aspects of the word. Aside from cultural and racial diversity, there is much economic diversity with haves, have-nots, and haves a whole lot. In this carpool, the closest in value to our humble abode was maybe 3x the value. The only friends Josh allowed to our house were the ones from the neighborhood; the very rich kids he didn't want to see our place and he had lots of very rich friends. Over the years I have had several pleasant conversations with this woman. Paranoid as I am, I always detected a little astonishment that Josh is such a great kid, athlete, well -adjusted person, etc despite... well... weird me.
Well I try to do my best for the kids but they are what they are.
Anyway, for the past 2 weeks I've been debating whether I should contact her. We don't exactly travel in the same circles and there was that tone of condescension that may or may not have been there but I figure I can't really ignore someone who has been dealt a terrible blow and then whine how certain people have forsaken me. So I wrote her a note. She can contact me if she wishes or throw the note in the trash.

Our house needs lots of work. Tomorrow we are going to the remodeler's showcase of homes to get some ideas. Our first target: our sorry, barely functioning out-dated bathrooms.