Reflections in the day and life of LaNora Mangano

I was asked by an author friend if I would share a blog about the day and life of me.

This is what I shared.

A friend of mine recently shared some photos of her visit back to California to see her failing health parents, possibly for the last time.

As I look through those pictures, I'm left to reflect on my life with my recently departed husband and of recent pictures I've uploaded.

When I met Chris he was so incredibly handsome, with rich dark and full, perfect hair, brown sparkling eyes that twinkled when he really liked what he saw and an affectionate smile.

He was everything I though a man should be. He played sports, (years on a men's soccer league) rode his bicycle every year in the Great Ragbrai event (Registered Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa) that encompassed about 500 miles within one week and he played in a men's basketball league.

He was the first person I'd ever met who took vitamins regularly and flossed his teeth daily. He ordered Chicken, when we went out for dinner versus something fried and fattening that I would take great pleasure in eating. He had a wicked sweet tooth that sometimes lead him to buy the cake icing in a tube and he would simply eat it like that.

Then somewhere along the road, life flipped on its head.

He went from being one of the healthiest people I knew to being the sickest person I knew.

The counter that was once lined with vitamins were replaced with heavy narcotic pain management pills, and tablets for nausea due to the chemo therapy.

The energy or thought of participating in sports, was spent sleeping instead.

The 3 bicycles he so proudly kept, one purchased the year previously, now sat to the side. The only wheels in his life at that point turned into a wheel chair that he couldn't power on his own. No longer was jumping to make a basketball shot in his life, as breathing became difficult to even stand.

Gone were the beautiful , rich and dark brown hair, and sparkling brown eyes replaced with chemo stark white hair, lost brown, long lashes, and the will to live in his eyes.

He held on for as long as he could, for me and for our boys, but he could not stay with us.

Then I think back to my most recent uploaded pictures of him with our children throughout the past 20 years and I'm reminded of just how beautiful he was, and how happy he felt when he was with his family and it shows in every picture.

His life meant something and I need to reflect on that more.