Amazing Mary Juggles Multiple Challenges

Susan notes: AWR member Mary Wagner was the second amazing woman to contribute to AWR way back in the autumn, shortly after it first launched. She told the story behind the creation of her blog and the publication of her book. Since then, she's been rather busy, as you will see from the email below. Makes some of my challenges look like a cakewalk.

Hi Susan, how are things on the far (and warm) side of the world?
 
Been having an amazingly horrific time over here for the past few months, juggling multiple and simultaneous family disasters 120 miles away in my home town of Chicago.

At the moment all is finally quiet, but my wheelchair-bound mother is still recovering from the broken leg, my father was hospitalized and seemed near death on Christmas, but has bounced back as much as Parkinsons and dementia will allow...


My godmother has to spend the next three months wearing a stiff cast on her torso to recover from some serious back and hip problems, and I've got other, let us say, challenging situations with which i'm trying to deal at the same time.

I wrote about some of it on the blog, under "Alles klar" and "Makeshift Christmas," but a few details that got left out were driving to Chicago when it was fifteen below zero to pick up my godmother from the hospital, and putting her dog to sleep.  Sigh...  Not much writing is getting done these days!
 
On the other hand, a couple of rays of sunshine to hold on to:  I'm going to have a photo exhibit for four weeks in a tiny cafe/art gallery in Chicago (www.looseleaflounge.com), opening on March 6, and I'll be doing a presentation about writing at a May 14-17 writer's conference in St. Simons Island, Georgia called "Scribbler's Retreat."
 
After all the writing I've done, I think the piece I wrote for you and AWR last year gives the absolute best picture of the journey that brought me to this point, so I wondered whether I could reprint a bunch of copies on paper and distribute it to my group at the conference?  I see that when I print it on my home computer in color, the whole AWR logo and website info reproduces very nicely.  

Anyway, it's Saturday morning and back to paying bills and nudging the cat aside while he tries to "help."  Hope all is well and good for you and yours,
 
Mary T. Wagner
www.runningwithstilettos.com

(Mary also wrote a blog entry for AWR entitled Preggers and phenomenal!)