Ann Cohen

Yesterday Ann Cohen came over to do a very magical concert of Songs and poems.  Some of the poems  were by her late husband, Allen...  a major alternative cultural figure of the sixties [the force behind the San Francisco underground paper THE ORACLE and the organizer of THE BE- IN [trying to bring the San Francisco hippies and the Berkeley political activists together].

Ann is a force herself...  playing her hand-made harp as we talked, making up Songs jamming with what we were saying.

We were kids in Ann's school for tots.

When we were talking about Louise Scott [who opened everything up for me forty years ago], Louise called right then.  Magic.

Kittee: 1989-2010

Today is a sad day  here.  We have to say Good-by to Kittee, our twenty year old Siamese cat. He waited until we got back home from hospital. He spent the last weeks on my lap night and day ... Very demanding. 

Even when he couldn't hardly walk, he climbed aboard.

[hours later]

They brought his body back home to be put in our back yard with the other two.  He has gone to the vet's almost every day for fluids for over a year.  He established relationships with every person there (they would talk to him, not to us).  So he went to sleep among his adorating fans as well as Linda and mikee.  What a way to go.

Paul Escriva wrote:
Hi Frankie,

Sorry to hear that Kittee passed on.
I can remember when I met him in 1993....
The first time I walked into the house he looked across the room and very loudly talked to me.
Later that night he found his way into the bedroom.
I awoke with him tip-toeing across the back of my pillow until he settled down and decided to curl up on the end of the futon for a little snooze.

Heaps of hugs to everyone,

Paul

Lob & Yvette wrote:
very sad Frank.. sorry to hear of Kittee's passing.
hugs and condolences to you and the family.

Lob & Yvette

Diana L. Battle wrote:
Frank,
So sorry to hear that. I am going through the fluid thing with my 14 yr old kitty,Cleo now.. They can be so comforting.

Annie Sprinkle wrote:
Thinking of you, here in West Virginia, when I read about your cat.
So sorry that you loose this precious member of your family.

Better to have loved and lost...

Blessings.
Annie
Sending world's sexiest and biggest flower for funeral. by email.

Frank Moore wrote:
yes, Annie, we miss him.  But we had time to hang out with him.  You lost your cats in the fire without a warning.  That must be harder.

expanding

Possibilities!

In the hospital several nurses said to me separately that they always thought that they needed kids so  they would have someone to take care of them when they got old.  But when they saw how we six were tribally taking care of one one another, they realized that there are many different ways, many kinds of families.  It blew them out how were there for one another.
In Freedom,
Frank Moore 

Dr. Richard Kerbavaz replied:
Indeed!  I had several of the nurses and therapists comment about how well everyone was able to pull together to help Frank.  That's a pretty good working definition of what family is all about
rk 

Frank Moore replied:
exactly!  And it was day-to-day for six weeks, so they saw it wasn't just show...  But very practical down to earth love /intimacy /tribal body that operates effectively uNder hard situations.

Btw, RK is doctor Kerbavaz, my ent for over twenty years...  But much more!  A dear friend!  He is on the e-salon.  He put in my trach, and basically is over seeing my recovery.  We email him questions almost daily !  he even checked in on me on his camping trip! 

Annie Sprinkle replied:
Wow Frank and Family.
Thanks for showing us the way to do hopsitols and aging and illness as love and art.
Very inspiring.
You should be so super proud of yourselves for being so phenomenal and special.
Annie

Frank Moore repilied:
yes annie, life always gives you opportunities to do possibilities-opening art.  The emails I got were my first sign that it wasn't just my personal situation that was involved.   many demanded me to do my duty and live to  do more trouble-making magic together.  There was a thick pile of them before I was in any shape to understand reading them.  But when I was, a lot of them said i better not die or else.

There are a lot of layers of this "piece "...  The RECOVERING CAM...  A great female singer (Kaitlin McGaw) came over last week to give us a concert...  Tomorrow a reporter (my nurse's brother) is coming to interview me about IHSS....  So you never know what a piece will lead to.  But this is a little extreme even for me...  Although I did do DYING IS SEXY before.

Kaitlin McGaw replied:
You guys are so dear. Thanks for sharing, Frank and Linda!
Stay full of life, joy and love.

Kaitlin

Frank replied:
Kaitlin, it meant a lot to me that you came and sang to us.

Donation From Vinnie and Jackie

From Vinnie (Spit) & Jackie:

Hi Frank, Mikee, Linda and the gang,
We just arrived home from a trip and read all the emails on Frank's progress. Thanks for keeping us in the loop.

We sent you some money through PayPal. If you guys are still tight on funds we can hopefully send you some more next month.

Get well my friend and thanks to everyone who has been looking after you.
- Vinnie and Jackie

Frank replied:
thanks, guys.  It helps.  We figured that we have gotten about a third of what we lost from the e-salon people...  Most who don't have much money themselves...  amazing and inspiring...  A layer of our family.

nap time!

a blip on the screen ...

Linda went in to have an emergency root canal yesterday!

Dodged a bullet

Frank was doing great when he first came back home from Alta Bates (Saturday, July 17). Linda and Mikee were much more comfortable with all the procedures and equipment after all the training at the hospital. He met with his visiting nurse, Jeannie, on Sunday, who was impressed with all of Frank’s stories. It turns out her brother-in-law had played slide guitar in Frank’s All-Star band in SF and her brother and sister are regular viewers of Frank’s cable TV show.

Wednesday, July 21, Frank had back-to-back sessions with a speech therapist for swallow therapy and with a physical therapist, (both of whom were great!) which all went well, but later that evening Frank started running a fever and the amount of secretions that we were suctioning had escalated and were getting thicker.

By Thursday morning it was obvious that Frank had an infection an then began a crazy daylong ride to avoid another trip to the Emergency Room. The nurses we called tried to contact Frank’s doctors and unfortunately they were all out of town on vacation. After many calls to nurses and various doctors it appeared our only choices were to go to the E.R. or to wait to get a call from a doctor who would probably tell us to go to the E.R. It was clear that all Frank probably needed was an antibiotic and it seemed crazy to run to the E.R. for every little thing. As the day wore on, Frank suggested we call Dr. Corey, who is Dr. Kerbavaz’s associate who we had only met once before at the hospital. That proved to be the perfect move. When we called she was actually available to talk to us and when we told her that we were facing another trip to the E.R. she said, “Oh, no, no, no!” and promptly called in a prescription for an antibiotic. Within less than 12 hours, Frank’s fever gone and the flow of secretions started to diminish.

Since then, Frank has been doing great. He is spending all of the day in his recliner. He also has been getting into his wheelchair once a day to cruise the house and supervise his Netflix Queue management on his computer.

Kittee, our 20.5 year-old Siamese cat, has been totally involved in Frank’s care. When we get up and start running around to do some procedure with Frank he climbs out of his bed and parks himself in the middle of the action. He even woke Linda up one night by tapping on her and because Mikee had been asleep for too long on his night shift watch.

Frank is physically getting stronger fast.

Keep those healing thoughts and good vibes coming!

To those who have donated money we deeply, deeply, deeply appreciate it. You will be hearing from us individually. We are squeaking by in July because of your donations.