Maybe it's time to blog again Look for new blog name

As most of you know, we came back to the US in January because I was found to have Stage 4 breast cancer. The doctors on the Navy base treated it like it was a death sentence and were sending me home to die. I was very scared but knew that somehow, someway, God was in charge and He would never make the way too hard for me to bear. That He would be with me whatever I had to go through.

Many people told me I should continue the blog and transition it to a blog about my cancer. Well...I don't know about you but I don't think people would want to hear about my feelings, fears and pain when it comes to cancer. I almost wish I had because here it is December...almost a year later and I am heading toward being cancer free. There are pills I have to take and bone treatments I have to have but there has been no surgery, no chemotherapy with the companion hair loss. A pill a day, an IV once a month. God has been good.

I know it may not last, the meds might stop working, they often do, but this wonderful treatment has given me my life back for now and I'm going to enjoy every moment of it.

Slight improvement by April allowed me to go finish out the year teaching in Sicily. It gave me the opportunity, also to say some goodbyes that I didn't get to say in January due to the rapidness of our leaving for the States. It was good to see friends and have the goodbyes we all needed.

Two weeks after we returned we had another health crisis. Bob got up in the middle of the night and suddenly realized something was wrong. My diagnosis, which turned out to be right, was that he was having a stroke. Thanks be to God, again, that I had listened to a radio broadcast from Focus on the Family when they talked about Dr. Dobson's stroke and the TPA that saved him. We immediately got Bob to the hospital where I kept telling them to hurry so he could have the TPA. Two hours and 40 minutes after the stroke started they injected the TPA and Bob immediately felt the difference. You can't have a major incident like that and come back with nothing different, but we are thankful for the slight balance difficulties (really....slight), a bit of numbness on one side and vision impairment on his right side. He can do most things he always did with the only major exception being that he can't drive any more. After 42 years I get to be the driver in the family.

Well, all that to say I might just begin this blog for a bit to tell of the adventures of two people entering their older years. I say entering because before all this happened, we still felt invincible. We were going to be healthy and live forever. Still did all the things we ever did and looked at old age as being VERY far away. Now we realize that God was looking down at us with His sense of humor saying, "Plan all you want, I have your future planned a little differently."

There are things in this that I am very thankful for and things that worry me. Things that make me laugh and others that make me cry. Tomorrow I go for a dr. visit and my monthly treatment. Last time for one blood test and one IV I had to be "stuck" six times. That made me cry. It also made me a little scared about tomorrow.

On Wednesday Bob goes for a CT scan in the area of the clot that caused the stroke. We are expecting all to be healed and for him to be off all specialty medication and doctor's care. I am praying that all is well but I know we don't always have the answers and will leave that in God's hands, too.

Please don't get me wrong, God is not my crutch though I could give reasons why a crutch is a good analogy. I just know that there is a future that is planned, not random, and I choose to believe that there is a God who loves me and will plan what is best for me and for improving our family's relationship with Him.

I think I shall name the new blog "Adventures beyond Italy" since that seems to be where and when the change in our lives happened.

Goodbye for this blogsite. I have copied all the sessions and will someday make a book from them but I am done with my adventure in Italy and so.......... on with life.

We're well and happy

Our hearts belong to Sicily

Here we are back in Sicily and loving it. No matter where we finally live the last years of our lives, this will always be the place we remember with loving fondness. I never thought Sicily would feel like home but here we are....home.







It is the season of roses and strawberries and cherries and watermelon. Yum. We've had dinner with our Italian friends twice. The first just the weekend after we arrived and the next a week later. The second meal was up on the mountain at the home of Cicio (chee chee o) and Graziella (graht zee ell a). Good friends, great Italian food. Can't get better than that.


The day was hot at our house but up on the mountain it was nice and cool. They live on a farm-type property with cherry trees, apple trees, pear trees.....all perfectly groomed with not a weed in sight on the ground. There are even concrete paths lined with roses to walk through the grove. They also have many things used years ago by Sicilians and Alfio (another friend) made sure we understood what each was for.



Also, Cicio and Graciella made sure we understood that if we needed a place to stay, either after our furniture was sent or upon returning to Sicily for vacation, they would love for us to stay with them. Giusseppe and Mimma have made the same offer so we are never going to be without a place to stay. What wonderful people.


Yesterday we went to the outdoor market in Misterbianco where we always spend too much and get great things. I decided I had to have some sheer curtains and some tablecloths to bring back to the states. The price is much more reasonable here. So, I bought curtains at 3 euro each and a tablecloth for 6 euro. Then I got cushions and a tablecloth for our marble table and some odds and ends of things to add to the already full bag. Poor Bob, he was carrying all that through the crowds. Not heavy, but very bulky.

Next we drove up the mountain to our favorite spot at a winery. We thought since it was a beautiful day, we could get a great view of the land. From the Gambino winery property on Mount Etna you can look clear out to the sea. We were excited to see it one last time before returning to the States. Going up the mountain we travelled the winding roads and noticed it becoming first cloudy, then foggy, then rainy so that by the time we got there, we couldn't even see past the yard, let alone to the sea. So we bought a little Sicily wine to send to the States and returned on the winding road (winding road here means 180 degree turns every few feet). The weather changed back to beautiful as we came down the mountain until at home it was just as we had left it. By the way, the mountain winery is (as the magpie flies) only 15 miles away.


Driving on the small highway, we came upon a horse and buggy painted with red, yellow, blue scenes. The horse was decorated, too, so they must have been going to or coming from some sort of "festa". Now this isn't something you see very often in Sicily. Quite unique, so Bob said he would go slowly and I could take a picture. Here are the two pictures I got.





















Where in the world did Tracy inherit her great photography skills from? Certainly not me.


We are looking forward to coming back to the States but we will always belong to Sicily.

going back to Sicily

In two weeks we'll be on planes headed for Sicily. Bob is a little worried because, as we got our tickets in two different ways, we will not be traveling together. He is concerned that I will not feel well and he won't be there to take care of me. He's been so great during this whole situation that he'll worry until he sees me safe in Sicily.

We're so much looking forward to seeing all our friends. I can hardly wait. I'm already planning a cookout with our Italian friends. Hamburgers, baked beans, potato salad....all those American cookout things.

And trying to find gifts for friends, both American and Italian. There are so many people we miss and/or want to show our appreciation to for all the help they've been while we've been away. keeping our dog, watching out for the house, going over to start the car...even paying our rent for us. So many wonderful friends.

Then, only four more weeks until we leave Sicily forever. I can't imagine our going back though I would love to. There will be to many new things to do here and new adventures for our lives. Maybe we'll go on a cruise.

Well, what do you know.....I'm back

The doctors say I can go back to Sicily to finish out the school year so on May 8 we will be boarding an airplane to go "home." I have truly missed that place, the countryside, the towns and villages, the wonderful Italian friends, the American friends from the base.

I am really getting excited.

However, in the meantime, we've been staying with our daughter, Jessica and her family, in a little suburb of Grand Rapids, Michigan, called Rockford. If you ever want to get away for a weekend, I would suggest Michigan. Beautiful beaches, little towns (like Rockford) with main streets that play jazz over an speaker system and local shops with a great variety of products. Not the big department stores and franchize shops we're used to in the midwest but the shops that invite you to come and browse through. (The shops remind me of Meg Ryan's little book store in "You've got mail") In Rockford's main street we have an herb shop, yarn shop, vintage and hand made clothing and accessories, basket/home accessory shop, toy store, ice cream parlor, candy shop, hot dog stands, and a store that sells articles made by women rescued from "trafficking" in India, Pakistan, northern countries of Africa, etc. What a great place, not just Rockford but all of western Michigan.

I'm not going to start a blog of our adventures here but we are having some really good times with the Jessica and the boys. Just this morning I was sitting doing my Bible study in Psalms and heard the boys laughing (Grant, 5, and Charlie, 7 months). The thought went through my head that if someone had told me I could hear that sound every day but would have to put up with cancer as a choice, I might just think it was worth it. I'm not glad I have cancer but I'm truly thankful for the opportunity to get to hear the boys laughter and spend time with my daughter.

God does work in mysterious ways.

Goodbye to Sicily

This may be my final blog post about the joys and frustrations of living in Sicily. It will definitely be the final one for awhile. However, don't give up on me. I may be back to pack out and have a couple of stories from that. Without getting too maudlin, I want to let you know I've been diagnosed with breast cancer and am leaving immediately for the States for surgery and treatment.

Before I go, I want to share a few photos of a place we almost could call our second home. The Saturday outdoor market in Misterbianco. Being the sentimental person I am, I couldn't leave without saying good-bye to some of the vendors we've come to consider friends. Bob took pictures of me with them so here they are with a few of just the market, too.

When we first found the market we bought several things from this couple. The sets of curtains for each of the huge window/doors in the house were only about 20 dollars including hardware. I would love to buy a bunch more to bring home but then, what would I do with them. They would only fit on patio doors and who, besides us while we're here, has four sets in their house?

We've bought a few other things there but mostly just stop to chat every time we are at the market. They are really nice people. Wanted our email address to write us.

These are the people we have bought yarn from . The husband looks like he would be tough, mean, disagreeable. But he's a real sweetie. I never understand a word he says because he speaks softly and in a Sicilian dialect that I don't know. But, he is gentle and precious and I could listen to that soft voice for hours.

I think it would put me to sleep. Usually he speaks and if it's important, she translates---into Italian. They did tell me not long ago that her brother left for America about ten years ago. He went to Canada, Toronto, and they haven't heard from him for five years. They have tried everything within their limited means. (Every Sicilian has a story about relatives in America)

This final family may be my favorite. We buy our ricotta (in the winter) and olives from them. The wife always makes sure she's the one who waits on me (I just thought, maybe she's the only one who understands my Italian). I think they must do a lot of the preserving or making of things at their house because they often show me something for sale and tell me they have made it. I know they have the best sun dried tomatoes I've ever found and they dry them themselves.

She also makes a candy-type snack from prickly pears off the cactus that grows everywhere here that is pretty good (delicious if one grew up with it). They sell all kinds of cheeses, meats, nuts, olives, tomatoes, figs, and it's always a pleasure to see this family.

This last friend photo is the woman who, with her husband, owns the little Tavola Calda (literally hot table) that we love in Misterbianco. The food is good and fresh but the owners are so gracious and friendly that we would like it even if it wasn't so good. Her family doesn't have an American story. Theirs is German. In the fifties, when there was "famine in the land" (no kidding, Sicily had famine) many families moved to either America or Australia. Her family went to Germany. So, she still has relatives there.

The final photos are of the market aisles. It's a cacophony of people talking, laughing, buying, selling, visiting and I will never forget this, my favorite place in Sicily. I'm sorry there are no photos of Bob among this set, he was the one taking the pictures. He's a pretty good photographer and if I want them to turn out good, I always ask him.

And so, my faithful friends and readers, thank you for sharing our adventures in Italy for the past two and a half years. For laughing with us and being amazed at this wonderful place. For enjoying through us the graciousness of it's people and for staying a part of our lives. We are now off to a new adventure.

If you would like to get in touch with us, please send an email to fletcher_italy@yahoo.com . We'll be looking forward to hearing from you.

on ordering for school from Sicily

When I was a teacher-leader for Reading Recovery in the States, all it took to order was to call the book rep (whom I knew from conferences) and say, "Here's what I want. Can you do it?" Then write up a purchase order. Not so from Sicily.

On Wednesday our principal called a small team together to say we have a large amount of money to buy books for our water-destroyed book room. The catch was that we have to submit a request as soon as possible (preferably this coming Tuesday, the day after a holiday weekend). Thinking it an easy job, the principal told us she would get us substitutes for Friday morning and we could get our ordering done.

We met Friday morning and after looking at all the choices, decided on two companies for the majority of the books. We wanted to get the most for our money so we decided to call each company to see what they could do--after all, this was major money, even for these companies. Calling wasn't as easy as one might think. Only three phones in our building are connected in a way that will allow calls out of the country, and they are all in our main office. We also have to wait until at least three o'clock to call because of the six to nine hour time difference. Taking the phone numbers off their website didn't really help because two of those numbers only got us a recording that said we had reached a (company name) unworking number.............then nothing...no redirections....just dead phone. Finally we got a live person.

First call:

Operator: Welcome to _______publishing, my name is Fatima, may I help you (strong accent---was she from India, maybe?)

Me: Hi, my name is Marianne Fletcher and I work for a Department of Defense school in Sicily serving the children of our military personnel. We would like to buy several thousand dollars worth of books in ___________series for our bookroom. Can you connect me with a sales rep?

Operator: I'm sorry, we don't have an Italian language edition of those series.

Me: No, no, no. We are an American school in Sicily

O: Let me give you the number of our Italian representative.

Me: No, no. We only have American language students. I NEED an American sales representative.

O: What state would that be?

Me: Well, everything would be shipped to our FPO address so I guess that would be New York

(wait, wait, wait at overseas long distance prices)

O: Here is the number for our UK (England) representative

Me: NO! NO! I NEED AN AMERICAN REPRESENTATIVE. We will be ordering through a United States representative and it will only need to be shipped to New York.

Three calls later we were still trying to get a sales rep. Deciding to try an alternate number from the website we got someone who was willing to help us. Even as helpful as she was we were stuck at the part in her computer program that asked for an address and wouldn't accept a Post office number and/or box number. We were f-i-n-a-l-l-y turned over to the international rep based in New York who was a great help.


Second company phone call made by a different teacher: Same shpeel about DoD school, blah, blah, blah.

Company person: I'm sorry, we only sell to public school and private schools.

After explaining that we are a public school----of Americans----she got basically the same "help" that I did.