Good evening, blog followers.
This is Joanne's daughter (Joanne Elizabeth, aka "Beth"), and I am writing to let you all know that, despite a year of almost unbelievable comebacks from numerous traumatic events, Joanne has finally been undone by a chest scan.
At a regular visit to her GP ten days ago, to which she actually walked from the car, she was urged to go to the ER for elevated blood pressure and low O2. Unfortunately, that led to a chest scan that revealed a large tumor around her esophagus that was not there just four months earlier - completely out of the blue.
She cannot fight this one, folks. It's one thing to soldier on through a broken leg or two, but quite another to subject oneself to chemotherapy and radiation at 83. And if there is one thing Joanne has always been very clear about, it is that she intends to make her own decisions about how she lives—and how she leaves.
She has led an amazing life, and I will have much more to say on her behalf later. For now, she is in hospice, and she has asked me to reach out to all of you.
Please leave any messages for her here, and I will read them to her and relay them. I know how much the friendships and connections she has made through this blog have meant to her, and I know she will be grateful to hear from you.
That's all from the front for now.
—Joanne's daughter, Beth
