Same Blog, New Name; Same Family, New Life Phase

Greetings, Friends and Family,  

Mom and Dad (Irene and Herman), were both handed a life-changing diagnosis last week, one day apart.  Some of you may have already been told, or heard from a close friend (it's not gossip if it comes from a place of love and concern). But many of you haven't been told, so that's what this is all about.

And with those diagnoses, we have had to make some adjustments. You can read more about each of them by opening a page under the "Pages with Detailed Answers to Questions about Irene, Herman, and Jody" on the right side of the home page for this blog. Each one is focussed on the specific diagnosis.

I will post the links here, just in case:
    * Mom's Dementia Diagnosis
    * Dad's Prostate Cancer Diagnosis

I am aiming to include the progress of their journeys (from my point of view) on this blog as well. So, with a change in purpose comes a renaming of the blog, since it is not just about my recovery post-stroke now.
We are each taking on different tasks so that each of them feels supported. 

Why "unravelry"?

"Ravel" is one of those English words that means its own opposite. It can mean to separate a mass of threads into individual strands, and it can also mean to knot up, to make someone confused, or make something tangled. We "unravel" mysteries, and we also talk about our nerves unravelling.

There is intention with unravelling a sweater to reuse the yarn or to pick up a dropped stitch.
There is intention with unravelling a project to start again with a different yarn or hook/needle size. There is an end goal.
This new reality that we find ourselves in is nebulous, and intention seems to have been taken away. Dementia is not curable, and while some cancers are curable, each case is not the same. 

The made-up term of "unravelry" seemed to capture those unknown factors, the confusion and anxiety, and the constant state of not knowing what will happen, despite our intentions.