Another bolt to Lancaster

I'd been planning to go to our folks' house tomorrow anyway, but I got awakened at 6:15 this morning by a phone call from my dad. I wasn't awake enough to panic. Mother's sick and so is Daddy's beloved service dog Cheyenne, so of course I'm going up there as soon as I can get a few things done (breakfast, shower, finish some documentation, coffee). In the meantime, you might be interested in checking out Cachexia. Note this phrase in particular: Cachexia does not appear to be the result of tumor size, type, or extent.

Lab results indicate Mother should be healthy.

Normally, a Grade I endometrioid adenocarcinoma should cause no symptoms beyond abnormal bleeding. Pain, weight loss and general ill-health are generally associated with more advanced disease. But so far, all of the tests Mother has undergone looking for metastasis have been negative. The ultrasound and CT-scans showed no abnormalities, and the CA-125 showed a level of 14 U/ml (well below the 35 U/ml threshold). As for the other tumor markers, the CA 15-3 (breast cancer) came back normal, while the CA 19-9 is pending. The oncologist did not mention the CEA at all. Furthermore, Mother's not anemic, her renal function is good, her electrolytes are, in the words of the oncologist, "great." This is good news, but the question remains: why is she so very sick?

What next?

Mother now has shingles. She had chicken pox as a child, and now the varicella zoster is back for a return engagement, causing itching and burning on her left side. People with compromised immune systems, such as those with cancer, are especially vulnerable to shingles. With any luck, Mother has gotten diagnosed and treated early enough - before the pustules form - that she won't suffer any undue complications. She does have to be careful during the pox stage that she doesn't expose anyone who has never had either chicken pox or the vaccine. The shingles virus is not directly communicable, and unlike chicken pox, which can infect others through coughs or sneezes, is infectious only through touch. An person infected this way would get chicken pox rather than shingles.

Shingles is the big reason to get children vaccinated against chicken pox. The childhood disease isn't usually that bad, but shingles can be hell.

Pale French Toast

Here's another favorite recipe of ours, a Weight-Watchers version of an old standard.

Preheat electric griddle to 275-300F.
Beat together in a shallow dish or pan:

• 9 egg whites
• 1 whole egg
• 1/2 cup milk (nonfat or 1%)
• dash of salt

Grease griddle with butter (1 tsp for each six slices).

Dip Sarah Lee Delightful White bread in egg mixture and cook on both sides until golden. Serve with Joseph's Maple Flavor Sugar Free Syrup (35 calories per 1/4 cup serving). This comes out to about 1 WW point per slice.

For special occasions like Father's Day, we use egg bread (challah) from the deli instead of the light bread; two moderately thick slices with sugar free syrup cost 5 WW points.

Cranberry Walnut Chicken Salad

Here's a favorite recipe of ours, our own variation on salads we've had in restaurants.

Mix together:

• 4 oz. cooked chicken (or turkey), cut into 1/2" cubes or smaller
  
• 1 Tbs. dried cranberries (or raisins)
• 1 Tbs. chopped walnuts
• 1 Tbs. diced celery
• 1 Tbs. mayonnaise (adjust to taste; we use Best Foods Reduced Fat)
• 1 tsp. sweetening (maple syrup, honey, brown sugar, Splenda, etc.; Lee uses Torani Sugar Free Raspberry Syrup, which imparts a subtle flavor and gives the whole an interesting pink color)

We like to make pita pocket sandwiches lined with lettuce and stuffed with this chicken salad. A single recipe of salad and one pita, split into two pockets will serve two light eaters or one hungry person. Western Bagel's Alternative Pita and Sara Lee's Mr. Pita Whole Wheat are our favorites: one Weight Watchers point apiece. Mimi's Cafe serves its version (with turkey and raisins) on toasted raisin bread with lettuce and tomato.

Revolution is in our Blood

In honor of Independence Day, I thought I'd write about some of our revolutionary ancestors. First comes David Peffley, a great-something-grandfather on Mother's side, who was born in 1761 in Pennsylvania.

From The Peffley -- Peffly -- Pefley Families in America:

REVOLUTIONARY WAR RECORD OF DAVID PEFFLEY

"David Peffley Jr. 8th class Penna. Militia sworn and subscribed before me the 9th day of July 1782. Signed John Gloninger, Sub. Lt. L Co." (Penna. Arch. Ser. 5, vol. 7, page 1720.
"David Peffley Jr. 8th class Lancster Co. Militia 1783 to 1790 (See Penna Arch. Ser. 6 vol 3, page 468)
"David Peffley Jr. 8th class 1784, Capt. Jacob Meily's Co." (see Penna. Arch. Ser. 6 vol 3, page 368)
(Note -- This David Peffley was carried on the Militia Rolls as David Peffley Jr. to distinguish him from his uncle David Peffley, who was listed on the rolls as "David Peffley Sr.")

Another rebellious ancestor on Mother's side was John Andrew Bryan:

John Andrew Bryan - b. 1717 M . Mary Morrison and moved to Burden Co., near Fairfield, Rockbridge Co., VA After living a few years in Borden Colony, they and their families proceeded to the Staunton River, where he became owner of land upon a part of which Salem is now situated. He left the Staunton River trading his land for "a pair of Cart-wheels" and moved with his family to Campbell County, VA. Here he bought 329 acres of Richard and 439 acres of Benjamin Arnold. On the last named tract he at once erected a bark hut, he later built a house farther down on Molly's Creek. A lot of this place was used as a muster ground for many years after the Revolution.
He inlisted in Capt. Thos. Merriweather's Co., Va. State Troops - private, March 1777 to serve 3 years. Rev . War. War Dept. Records. Col. Familiesof U.S., Vol VI. Mac Kinzie Pg. 105.
( Any ladies decended from John Andrew's Grandson Andrew Bryan of Chillicothe MO, (who m. Isabelle Ross,) are entitled to become members of the D.A.R.)

Yet another ancestor of hers, Hugh Currin, was killed in the woods in Granville County, NC, during the Revolutionary War. Hugh's brother James served as a captain of militia there, and James's two sons also served.

Daddy's side of the family has handed down a story about an ancestor who joined in the Boston Tea Party. Joseph Hastings Hobbs was born in Princeton, Massachusetts in 1794, so it is possible that his father Jonas or unknown grandfather might have been the individual in question. Obviously we have no documentation of this. Daddy's Stubbs ancestors were in America at the time, and William Stubbs, born in 1748 in North Carolina, could have enlisted in the militia, but so far I have found no evidence of it.

On Lee's side of the family, one of his ancestors, Meredith Darlington, was listed on the roll of the Cumberland, Pennsylvania, Militia in 1783 (Source: Muster and Pay Rolls, Pa. Militia, 1790-1800,p.185). Another, Joseph Essig, served as an "Indian Spy" in North Carolina (Pierce's Register [p.313] VOUCHERS page 429).

Maybe our ancestry goes some way toward explaining why we are such independent cusses.

Sam & Martha's Synagogues

The Great Synagogue of London 1810

Based on their known addresses, Sam and Martha Isaacs always lived close enough to a synagogue that they could walk there on the sabbath. In London, Martha's father Morris Myers was a Privileged Member of the Great Synagogue in Duke's Place. Several life events were recorded there, including his marriage to Sarah Fuller daughter of Abraham on 1 September 1825, and his death on 12 June 1870. Sam Isaacs's parents appear to have also been married in the Great Synagogue: Zeev Wolf son of Moshe Isaacs to Elena daughter of Isaac Benjamin on 15 December 1830. Sam and Martha were married there on 25 October 1854.

When Sam and Martha went to the goldfields in Australia, him in 1856, and her with their two eldest daughters in 1858, they seem to have settled in Bendigo (which was briefly known as Sandhurst). The existence of the Sandhurst Congregation, established in 1854, may have influenced their choice. The currently-existing temple was completed in 1872, after they left Australia in 1870.

Bendigo Synagogue 1880s

They did not stay long in London, but decided to try their fortunes in the United States in 1871. By 1880, the family was living on Cutter Street in Cincinnati, Ohio, within walking distance of the Plum Street Temple at the corner of 8th and Plum. The building was new at the time, having been dedicated in 1866, but it is now on the Historic Registry, not only for its architecture but for its role in the establishment of the Reform movement in America. Rabbi Isaac Meyer Wise served there from 1854 to 1900, and he may have been the most influential Jew of his era.

Isaac M. Wise Temple in Cincinnati
postmark 1912

When Sam and Martha and their youngest children moved to Trinidad, Colorado, sometime between 1880 and 1888, they probably chose the town because of the Jewish congregation there. They may have already known the Jaffa family, who had also come from Cincinnati and were prominent members of the Trinidad Jewish community. Temple Aaron was constructed in 1889 by twelve Jewish families, although whether the Isaacs are officially among them, I don't know. They certainly could have been, since they were listed in the Trinidad Directory in 1888, but they may not have had the money at that time. This is a line of research I should pursue.

Temple Aaron 1890s

Both Sam and Martha died in Trinidad, Sam on 2 May 1892, and Martha on 11 June 1912. They are buried in the Congregation Aaron section of the Masonic Cemetery north of town.