Affiliate Programs

I know many of you are probably wondering where I’ve been over the last several weeks. Well, I’m about to tell you.

If you’re looking for a post about Affiliate Marketing or making money on the Internet, this post isn’t for you, wait a few days and I’ll get one up for you. This post has nothing to do with those things and has nothing to do with the subject of this Blog, but it’s my blog none the less and I choose what I write and what I don’t. At this point, I choose to blog about what I’ve been doing over the last Month or so.

 Of the last 6 weeks or so, I’ve only been home 1 week, that was the week after Thanksgiving. The other times I was taking care of my terminally ill Mother in Oklahoma.

I went and stayed with her for the two weeks or so before Thanksgiving. At that time she could get around with one of us helping her. She’s very independent and when she asked for help, I knew it was getting bad.

I took a break and come home Thanksgiving as one of my Aunts came to stay with her for a while. She had started Chemotherapy again when she went back into the hospital and was diagnosed with Pneumonia. At that point, her Doctor cancelled the rest of her Chemo treatments saying that she was too weak to take them further. He arranged for Hospice to start coming in and told us that she would not beat the Pneumonia and called the Family in.

Angels Indeed Walk Among Us

I’d heard of Hospice before. But honestly, I never gave them much of a second thought. I always thought they were a home health care for the terminally ill. I was kinda correct, but in a vague way.

When my Mother was diagnosed with Cancer last Spring, I didn’t know that she had already spoke with Hospice. They determined at that time that she wasn’t ready for their services as she was still very active and pretty much still independent. They told her to call them when she needed them.

After she was sent home with Pneumonia, two Hospice workers showed up at the home one evening. Before I had gotten there, they had already delivered a hospital bed to her home along with several other pieces of equipment.

Since the Family was pretty much there, the head Hospice person (I think she was a Supervisor) called us out into the Garage and had a little talk with the Family.

I can’t begin to tell you how caring, supportive and understanding these people were. I’ve been around great Nurses and Doctors before. But these Hospice workers went above and beyond and then kept going.

They told us what to expect in the coming days. Signs to watch for and what they could and could not do for us. (which as it turns out that the things they couldn’t do for us was very minimal)

Never, in my life would I have suspected that there were such compassionate people on the face of this Earth! And it wasn’t these two people either. Every Nurse that came to check on my Mom was the most compassionate and caring person I had ever met. Not only did they go all out to meet my Mothers needs, they were there for the Family as well.

When they said “Call us anytime, I don’t care if it’s 3 a.m.”, they meant it!

They did receive some of those 2 and 3 a.m. calls from us and they couldn’t have been any nicer or helpful when we woke them up.

Enter One Of the Worst Ice Storms In Oklahoma’s History

My Mother started having complications with the Pneumonia, so we called Hospice about 10 a.m. one night and asked if we couldn’t get a Nurse to stay with her 24/7 and help us. They said “No Problem, well send one as quick as we can”

This was on the night that the Ice Storm started hitting Oklahoma and ice had started forming on the roads.

About an hour after the call, a Nurse showed up. She had about an inch of ice on her vehicle, but she’d cleaned off the windows well enough to drive 45 minutes to our home.

About 5 a.m. that morning we lost power due to iced limbs breaking and downing power lines.

The Hospice Nurse got on the Phone and called 911. The Emergency services didn’t feel that my Mother was an “Emergency” case. A few well chosen words from the Hospice Nurse and they changed their minds.

When the Ambulance came to take her to the Hospital, the EMS guys didn’t think she was an Emergency case either. Again, the Hospice Nurse had to remind them there was no power, no heat and only about 45 minutes of Oxygen left in my Mom’s portable tank. She made them boys see real quick that this WAS an emergency case and they transported her to the Hospital.

This day also happened to be my birthday.

My Aunt, one Cousin and myself stayed with Mom in the Hospital. We took turns going to get food, coffee and going outside for smoke breaks.

About 4 a.m. the next morning, my Mom lost her battle with Cancer.

My faith tells me she is in a much better place now and this has helped immensely handling her death.

Nothing, but nothing prepared me as much for her death though as the Hospice team. The information and support they provided helped us a great deal and I will forever be deeply appreciative to them.

To top it off, we were without power for a week due to the ice storm.

Life’s Lessons My Mother Taught Me

My Mother and Father divorced when she was about 50. I was 20 years old at the time and going through a divorce of my own from my first wife.

Mom taught us boys a lot of things growing up. However, I think it was the lessons that she taught us through her actions after she divorced that made the most impact on my life.

Unlike my Dad, she never remarried. She only had a high school education and she received very little money in the Divorce settlement.

However, she immediately went out and got a job after being a Homemaker for nearly all her life.

She worked and saved her money. She never made more than 10 dollars an hour, but she managed to buy and pay off a house (on a 15 year note) and pay off her car on her income. When one job became too difficult or she saw a better opportunity, she took it. If one job slowed down, she would often get another one to take up the slack.

She scrimped, saved, sacrificed and budgeted to make ends meet. But she did it. She proved it could be done.

Every July 4th she had a huge Family Reunion at her house. This was one of the high points of her life every year. She provided most of the food for this also.

She loved her Family and when someone was coming over, even if it was for a day, Mom was busy in the Kitchen cooking up something good. It was seldom that anyone left her house that wasn’t carrying food home with them.

I look back now and actually feel bad that I make probably 10 times or more than she did and have a helluva lot less to show for it. I’m guessing that many of you do also.

Strangely enough, it was my Mom who was the most supportive of me and my “hairbrain” ideas. My Dad was a work-aholic and a successful entrepreneur. However, his advice to us boys was always “Go to School, get an education and get a good job”. It was my Mom who always said “Son, I know you can do anything you set your mind to. If you want to do it, go for it, I’ll support you in any way I can.”

And she did! I probably never let her know how much her supportive words meant to me. Even when I failed, she never said “I told you so”. It was always, “You did the best you can do, you’ve learned from your lessons, you’ll be successful next time, I have faith in you.”

She also taught us through her actions to never give up. She wasn’t a quitter.

Shortly after she moved into her home, she came home one morning from work and thought my Uncle’s truck was in her driveway. She let herself in the door from the Garage and herd someone go out the back door and then heard the truck start up and leave. It had been a burgler and he’d stolen a lot of her antiques and jewelry. Some of her jewelry was her Great Grandmothers. Even though she was shaken, she carried on.

In 1996 a lamp in the Living Room shorted out. She was asleep when the fire started but managed to get out with only some singing of her hair and clothes.

The fire gutted most of her home. Many things that the fire didn’t get, the so called “clean up” company got. Just a FYI, be wary of any company you Insurance agent sends out to “clean up” items damaged by a fire. From what I can tell, most of them are crooks and your agent may be taking a kickback.

Mom had to fight with her insurance company to cover the things that were supposed to be covered by her policy.  She fought for everything that was described in the policy and got it even though they tried their best to get out from under it.

There are other examples, but you get the picture. There were times should could have gave up and quit, deciding to become a victim, but she didn’t. That wasn’t my Mom.

Getting Back To Normal Isn’t Easy

So if you’ve been wondering where I’ve been, now you know. I got back home from taking care of her stuff this past weekend and I’m still trying to get my business and home life back on track.

I literally have hundreds of emails I’m trying to sort through.

I didn’t have the heart and mindset to work on my Internet stuff while I was taking care of Mom.

To you wonderful people who bought a copy of the BuildANicheStore or PHPBay ebay affiliate programs and are waiting for a copy of my ebook, I promise, it’s on its way as soon as I get all the emails out of the way. I also have some new and exciting information that I’m going to be updating the ebook with.

For everyone else, I’ll be getting back to posting on a regular basis shortly. I have some good topics for articles and can’t wait to sit down and write them up.

I thank everyone for their patience and hope you had a great Christmas and I’m wishing you all a Happy and Profitable New Year!