My late wife and I finished each other's sentences. I always told folks after she passed that it came in handy when the brain tumor she had started taking it's toll on her. One of the symptoms that her tumor showed was something called aphasia, which was her not being able to say a word although she could see the word in her mind and knew it's meaning. You know when you say that a word is on the tip of your tongue? This was the real manifestation of it.
Remembering Kiwi
In remembrance of Carroll Benjamin Pickering who lost a three year battle to brain cancer. (1972-2013)
Monday, March 1, 2021
Meant for Each Other
My late wife and I finished each other's sentences. I always told folks after she passed that it came in handy when the brain tumor she had started taking it's toll on her. One of the symptoms that her tumor showed was something called aphasia, which was her not being able to say a word although she could see the word in her mind and knew it's meaning. You know when you say that a word is on the tip of your tongue? This was the real manifestation of it.
Monday, September 14, 2020
That First Meeting
Eighteen years ago, I met the most wonderful person in the world and somehow, strangely, she felt the same way about me. Two years later I would ask her to be my wife. All on this day of days, it is shared with the birthday of my mother and little brother. Mom's still here but little brother and Carroll are up there with the angels, burning our ears.
Friday, August 9, 2019
Ft. Worth Brain Tumor Walk 2019
The Ft. Worth Brain Tumor Walk takes place Saturday November 2, 2019 and I hope that some of you will be able to join me and Lilly. Follow the links below and we hope to see you there!
Ft. Worth Brain Tumor Walk
By clicking on the above link, you can join the walk, join our team - Team Kiwi, or just donate to me - James Pickering, the team - Team Kiwi, or to the walk itself. If you have any questions, I'll be glad to help.
Wednesday, June 5, 2019
Off The Beaten Path
We loved to watch Texas Country Reporter with Bob Phillips (now he's bringing along his wife Kelli) and we even had a atlas that they had put out (I think TCR did it) with every Texas road, farm-to-market and wagon rut that would support a vehicle. The word vehicle was used very loosely to accommodate many types of conveyance. With the help of that book, we got to see Texas fox hunts (coyotes filled in) and dinosaur tracks and so many other sights.
This summer I hope to introduce my daughter to some of these amazing scenes by riding the roads like me and her mama did. And mama will still be there with us smiling down and enjoying the ride.
Friday, March 22, 2019
Getting back to work on what matters
Please join me in the fight.
And stay tuned for more stories about Kiwi. I promise, I'll write more.
Help us find a cure!
Monday, July 17, 2017
Getting Back to Remembering
It was ten years ago on July 14th that they removed the mass in Carroll's temple. I thank the skill of Dr. Cattorini for helping give my wife two and a half more years to live. May 10th would have been her 45th birthday. January 30th would have had us celebrating our 12th anniversary, she would have eaten birthday cake with Lilly on her 7th birthday January 2nd, and of course, it was four years ago on February 3rd that she went ahead of us. I hadn't really thought how I say that until I saw it in print. She left us. Sounds like she did it on purpose and we all know that is not the case.
Anyway, I happened to be cruising my Facebook feed and came across this video. The song is one that I played at the funeral. It was a favorite of mine and Carroll's and it's where Carroll resides, somewhere over the rainbow.
The story behind the singer is tragic and lends to the solemnity of the song. In the video you can see how much the singer was loved and how many people turned out for the ceremony interning his ashes to the ocean. Beautiful song, beautiful video.
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
Dallas-Ft. Worth Brain Tumor Walk 2015
Yep, that’s right. It’s been a year. This will be the our third walking without Carroll, but we know that she walks with us in spirit. I’ve been lax in getting this info out, so I’ve gotta step up my game a little.
I’ll try to keep this as simple as possible because the website is still a little hard to navigate. Even for me. There are several ways to participate. You can join the team and walk with us. That means you pay $25 and you get a page to gussy up real pretty and send the link to all of your friends and try to get them to donate, then you walk with us. Or, you can be a virtual participant. This is for those that can’t be there to walk with us, but want to help out in the fundraising department by having a page that they can send all of their friends to and collect donations. You’ll get an event t-shirt just as if you were at the event. You can just donate to the team or me, either one. If you donate to me, it is added to my funding goals. I set them a little low this year due to me running a full-time business and wrangling a kindergartner, but it can always be raised. And you can also just donate to Team Kiwi itself. And the last option is to just volunteer. It doesn’t cost anything, you get a cool volunteer t-shirt and you get to help out in a great cause.
So, if you would like to join TEAM KIWI, volunteer or donate to the team, then click TEAM KIWI.
If you would like to donate to my page or join TEAM KIWI, then click JAMES PICKERING.
I’m hoping to have another great turnout as we always do. If you’ve got ideas for ways to raise money, feel free to share them on the Facebook Page - Dallas/Ft. Worth Brain Tumor Walk - Team Kiwi. If you’d like to be on the mailing list, send me your email to walkwithkiwi (at) maildrop (dot) cc. If ya’ll don’t know how to turn that into an email, what are you doing on a computer? lol Seriously.
Love to all and let’s start raising some money!