inspiring stories - Five More Minutes With

Memory of Mom: Full of Gratitude During the Final Moments

Written by Deborah Parker on May 4, 2012

This Memory of Mom was written by Deborah Parker, a motivational speaker and author at The DPJ Training Group.

Deborah says, “I wrote the primary parts of my published motivational memoir, “Navigating Life’s Roadways: Stories of Insight from My Odyssey and Inspiration for Your Journey,” during the year of grieving the loss of my mother in March 2010. I gather strength from our joint sojourns and the guiding spirit of this bond of life. The devastating emotions so many go through from this type of loss are warmly and vividly portrayed in my stories. My mother is my spiritual co-author and, out on long walks, the power of nature provided the creative outlet for me with the metaphors and stories.”

Deepest thanks to you, Deborah, for your inspiring book and this MoM submission!

As I stood in a hospital room watching my mother’s health continue to be leveled from the onslaught of leukemia, she began to look at me with a dreamy and intense gleam to her eyes.

I didn’t know the end was so close that day or maybe I did and was too scared to acknowledge it.

But what I saw in her eyes was the most adoring view as she looked at me, her first born.

So if I had five more minutes, I would’ve poured thousands more thank-you’s on her for all she did for me, as a determined factory-worker mother, particularly a single parent of four children.

For ensuring that I got my education and went through the rituals of childhood to adulthood from school field trips to the proms, I am so grateful. She made it all happen in spite of our poor financial situation.

And my apologies to her for my bad judgement calls during our most challenging moments would stream lovingly and steadily from my lips.

I would hug her tightly and share with her the value of her motherly gifts, that I know even more now continue to bless me.

And I’d be planning our joint trip to Hawaii.

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Blood Families Vs. Chosen Families

Written by Braiden on November 24, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving! With many of us huddled around the dining-room table or television set with family and friends from afar to celebrate the holidays, here’s a thought-provoking blog post about “real” versus chosen families that’s reposted from last year.

Although I don’t always put a lot of faith in them, I must admit that I read my horoscope every week in Seattle’s two alternative papers, the Seattle Weekly and The Stranger. This week’s Weekly prediction really got me to thinking, because it has such relevance for the Five More Minutes With community.

Here’s the Libran horoscope for May 26-June 2, courtesy of Caeriel Crestin:

Blood family does not trump chosen family unless you decide it does. Wouldn’t you agree that someone’s adoptive father who raised them from infancy to adulthood has more of a claim to the “Dad” title than the guy who originally provided the sperm? The same goes for the people you’ve chosen in your life. They get to keep being in your life, and those bonds can be just as strong and valuable as any of those dictated by genetics—as long as you deem it so. Don’t let the world’s rules be your rules, not when you have the absolute power (at least in this case) to make your own.

Is your blood family your chosen family? If not, have you thought about who your “real” family is?

I urge you to think of the people who are closest to you and mean the most in your life. . .and don’t waste a moment. . .tell them so today!

And for a related story with this theme, don’t miss reading An Allegiance with Al, an adopted daughter’s love letter to her adoptive father.

More stories from: Featured Story,With All My Loved Ones

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Thoughts on Last Suppers

Written by Braiden on June 14, 2010

About 10 years ago I started writing a novel called “The Last Supper Club” whose protagonist was a female celebrity chef who made super-extravagant last suppers for people who knew they were terminally ill. The novel (like all of my fiction writing, at least so far) didn’t go anywhere; in fact, I never even finished the book.

Fast-forward to 2007, when a lovely four-color, coffee-table nonfiction book entitled, “My Last Supper: 50 Great Chefs and Their Final Meals/Portraits, Interviews, and Recipes” was published.

I thought about that book, and portions of my own short-lived novel that were semi-autobiographical, as I hatched the idea for Five More Minutes With.

And just today (remember there are no coincidences!) I ran across a link to Celebrity Chefs’ Last Suppers while searching ProChef SmartBrief, a wonderful e-newsletter that comes into my “other” inbox (for my food-and-wine-writing life).

Here is the link to the Last Suppers Photo Gallery courtesy of Time magazine. I especially like the shot of Italian chef Lydia Bastianich in a “hat” made entirely of pasta.

What would you have for your last supper? Would it be something fancy and multi-course, as many of the chefs requested?

Or something simple and homey, perhaps a comfort food(s) from childhood?

Me? I’d keep it simple and homey with a sliced turkey-breast sandwich on whole-wheat bread with real mayonnaise, lettuce, and tomato; a Honey Crisp apple, and iced tea (real, black iced tea–none of that frou-frou passion-fruit stuff!) with Sweet ‘n’ Low.