Hello everyone. It has been awhile since I checked in and, sadly, I come bearing bad news.
For a number of years, Mamselle had been fighting what she thought, and had been told, were upper GI issues, treating them with probiotics, diet, etc. A few weeks ago she was admitted to the hospital and they discovered a large mass. She was, in fact, suffering with Stage 4 ovarian cancer that had metastasized to her lungs and other organs. They gave her a prognosis of a few months to a year. She finally decided to go ahead with chemo, and had had at least one treatment, and was working with a Social Worker to figure out where to go upon her release from the hospital. On Friday they inserted a new line to drain fluid from her lungs and she told me she was feeling a bit better, having gotten some sleep and food, and she was enjoying a new scarf she received for Christmas.
She had put together a small group of friends to help her figure out where to re-home some of her possessions: her library, research materials, and instruments, and to help her start to make arrangements for her eventual death. Thankfully, a couple of these friends were local to her and able to visit her and arrange for pastoral care. This morning one of them notified me that she had passed at 3am. They are unsure if her death was caused by a pulmonary embolism or due to a refusal of nutrition. I’m not sure what arrangements are going to be made. I convinced her to talk to her brother, but I do not know if her sister had been told of her condition, yet, and I am not in contact with her family.
Mamselle was a gentle soul, but she was a fighter and fiercely independent. She reached out to me way back when I first joined these fora after I lost my husband. We had the opportunity to meet a number of times - most often when she came this way to attend the conferences in Kalamazoo, where I’d stay in her room and she’d lend me her pass so that I could attend some of the talks and get into the book room while she put finishing touches on her presentation. We spoke and wrote often, about matters both big and small. She was a good friend, and I shall miss her.
