Goodbye Redwood City 07.28.2019
My dearest friends and community... my village,
As I write this, I am so aware that “it takes a village” to manage everyone’s life. My heart aches for those who have not been able to be blessed by dear friends, community and yes, a village, as they missed a life woven with the Master’s Hand into a beautiful tapestry.
I was born in San Francisco 70 years ago this October. My family moved to “where the sun shines” in San Mateo when I was 4.
I married the love of my life in 1970, and, by divine intervention, we have managed many storms and have come out closer and more in love than when we met in World History in our Sophomore Year at Hillsdale HIgh School, in 1964. Because my name was Aslanian and his name, Berens, I sat in front of him and doodled all the time, creating what he called dirty pictures: eyes and eyelashes, perfect noses and smiles.
I spent my life falling down, hitting my head, falling off bicycles, skates, getting my head stuck in chairs, running high fevers, and breaking bones until our first date, the Junior Prom, where I had a cast on my right hand from “playing” basketball. I suppose that if Al would have really thought about it, he would have run the other way as fast as possible, yet he told me he was going to marry me some day, to which I replied: “riiighttt...” (just like Dr. Evil)
We moved into Redwood City to our first apartment at Ebener and Redwood Avenue in 1970. Other than 5 years in Foster City, where we owned our first condo, we lived in Redwood City until this week. I have always loved what all our “friends” used to call Deadwood City. The communities of people have been amazing, especially my very special villages of the Berens family; the Golden Gate Region, Porsche Club of America; New Life Church; the American Research Center in Egypt, Northern California Chapter; Peninsula Covenant Church; and Hair Friends Salon. These groups of people have supported us and saved our lives more than once.
Our lives took a turn after we returned from our 25th Wedding Anniversary trip to Egypt, Israel and Greece. I started to fall down, and have trouble playing the drums, which I deemed “should be illegal because it is so much fun!”
The last 24 years of neurologists, psychologists, MRI’s EMI’s and CT scans, OT, Neuro PT, physicians, and prescriptions, have cost a lot of money but have given temporary relief at best.
My relationship with Jesus, beginning in 1983, healed my life. Nothing bad could really ever happen to me after that. Yes, complicated, ridiculous things happened, but nothing disrupted the inner core of who I was becoming. I have often said, I refuse to let anyone’s behavior change who I am. Believe me, I have had numerous opportunities to test that theory.
May 20, 2019, I woke up and couldn’t walk. This was not a new experience, but normally in about 6 weeks I began to recover, with some lasting affects of what had been damaged. In the past, blindness, hearing loss, inability to speak, taste, walk, feel, and body malfunctions would slowly disappear into the vapor of life and we would go back to “normal”.
This time has been different. Over the last 10 weeks, I have been slowly isolated until all I could do was have phone calls and short visits from loved ones. Every position I have volunteered from has been eliminated as I have had difficulty being in groups or around people. Our condo in Redwood City on Park Atherton Lake, which always felt like a vacation, began to cause me body responses that we alarming. We have figured out that the closeness of the walls, the various colors and shapes and sizes of books, the noise, the traffic, and the 840 square feet we have called home, no longer works for me.
We started visiting Petaluma and Santa Rosa to give me a break. We have always loved Sonoma County, and we found that housing costs have come way down. We found a lovely home in a Sant Rosa senior community which was built for someone in a wheelchair. We put an offer on the home and waited to see the result.
July 17, I began having convulsions and was admitted to Kaiser in Redwood City for 3 days. The moment I was rolled back into our condo, I had another convulsion and almost went directly back to Kaiser. I have slowly been able to understand the stop signs and warning signs that my body is not happy.
I spent my last day in Redwood a few days ago, and although we have no furniture to speak of, the location has improved my health exponentially. It is so quiet here, I feel like I am in Death Valley in the spring or at the Step Pyramid in Egypt in the fall, (two of my favorite places).. Al’s blood pressure dropped 20 points the moment we put an offer in on the house. We believe this will be our best move yet. We really saw our last days as in that little condo on the lake. We now know that this home was meant for us. We attended a little church 5 minutes from our new home, which had a sermon called Face to Face with Jesus, Nick at Night, from John chapters 2 and 3. Peninsula Covenant Church has been in a series called Face to Face, encounters with Jesus. One starts to understand that there is no such thing as a coincidence!
I only have experienced my complete removal from a situation one other time. When I left work just after my last haircut, July 28, 2013.
I have no idea what the future holds, but I know it will be woven with the Master’s Hand into a beautiful tapestry.
GOD loves you intentionally and indefinitely!
My dearest friends and community... my village,
As I write this, I am so aware that “it takes a village” to manage everyone’s life. My heart aches for those who have not been able to be blessed by dear friends, community and yes, a village, as they missed a life woven with the Master’s Hand into a beautiful tapestry.
I was born in San Francisco 70 years ago this October. My family moved to “where the sun shines” in San Mateo when I was 4.
I married the love of my life in 1970, and, by divine intervention, we have managed many storms and have come out closer and more in love than when we met in World History in our Sophomore Year at Hillsdale HIgh School, in 1964. Because my name was Aslanian and his name, Berens, I sat in front of him and doodled all the time, creating what he called dirty pictures: eyes and eyelashes, perfect noses and smiles.
I spent my life falling down, hitting my head, falling off bicycles, skates, getting my head stuck in chairs, running high fevers, and breaking bones until our first date, the Junior Prom, where I had a cast on my right hand from “playing” basketball. I suppose that if Al would have really thought about it, he would have run the other way as fast as possible, yet he told me he was going to marry me some day, to which I replied: “riiighttt...” (just like Dr. Evil)
We moved into Redwood City to our first apartment at Ebener and Redwood Avenue in 1970. Other than 5 years in Foster City, where we owned our first condo, we lived in Redwood City until this week. I have always loved what all our “friends” used to call Deadwood City. The communities of people have been amazing, especially my very special villages of the Berens family; the Golden Gate Region, Porsche Club of America; New Life Church; the American Research Center in Egypt, Northern California Chapter; Peninsula Covenant Church; and Hair Friends Salon. These groups of people have supported us and saved our lives more than once.
Our lives took a turn after we returned from our 25th Wedding Anniversary trip to Egypt, Israel and Greece. I started to fall down, and have trouble playing the drums, which I deemed “should be illegal because it is so much fun!”
The last 24 years of neurologists, psychologists, MRI’s EMI’s and CT scans, OT, Neuro PT, physicians, and prescriptions, have cost a lot of money but have given temporary relief at best.
My relationship with Jesus, beginning in 1983, healed my life. Nothing bad could really ever happen to me after that. Yes, complicated, ridiculous things happened, but nothing disrupted the inner core of who I was becoming. I have often said, I refuse to let anyone’s behavior change who I am. Believe me, I have had numerous opportunities to test that theory.
May 20, 2019, I woke up and couldn’t walk. This was not a new experience, but normally in about 6 weeks I began to recover, with some lasting affects of what had been damaged. In the past, blindness, hearing loss, inability to speak, taste, walk, feel, and body malfunctions would slowly disappear into the vapor of life and we would go back to “normal”.
This time has been different. Over the last 10 weeks, I have been slowly isolated until all I could do was have phone calls and short visits from loved ones. Every position I have volunteered from has been eliminated as I have had difficulty being in groups or around people. Our condo in Redwood City on Park Atherton Lake, which always felt like a vacation, began to cause me body responses that we alarming. We have figured out that the closeness of the walls, the various colors and shapes and sizes of books, the noise, the traffic, and the 840 square feet we have called home, no longer works for me.
We started visiting Petaluma and Santa Rosa to give me a break. We have always loved Sonoma County, and we found that housing costs have come way down. We found a lovely home in a Sant Rosa senior community which was built for someone in a wheelchair. We put an offer on the home and waited to see the result.
July 17, I began having convulsions and was admitted to Kaiser in Redwood City for 3 days. The moment I was rolled back into our condo, I had another convulsion and almost went directly back to Kaiser. I have slowly been able to understand the stop signs and warning signs that my body is not happy.
I spent my last day in Redwood a few days ago, and although we have no furniture to speak of, the location has improved my health exponentially. It is so quiet here, I feel like I am in Death Valley in the spring or at the Step Pyramid in Egypt in the fall, (two of my favorite places).. Al’s blood pressure dropped 20 points the moment we put an offer in on the house. We believe this will be our best move yet. We really saw our last days as in that little condo on the lake. We now know that this home was meant for us. We attended a little church 5 minutes from our new home, which had a sermon called Face to Face with Jesus, Nick at Night, from John chapters 2 and 3. Peninsula Covenant Church has been in a series called Face to Face, encounters with Jesus. One starts to understand that there is no such thing as a coincidence!
I only have experienced my complete removal from a situation one other time. When I left work just after my last haircut, July 28, 2013.
I have no idea what the future holds, but I know it will be woven with the Master’s Hand into a beautiful tapestry.
GOD loves you intentionally and indefinitely!