As a year, 2022 seems to have had a lot of ups and downs for our family and friends. So let’s start with with ups.

Early in 2022 my Mother celebrated her 98th birthday. Overall she is still going strong and we’ve started thinking about doing something special for number 100! For her 90th birthday we had a big family gathering in Florida, and unless we think of something else, we plan to do that again.

2022 was also the year of our Johnson family reunion. It was hosted by my cousin Dwight and held at a wonderful county park near Cincinnati called Winton Woods. Family came from as far as Colorado, Florida, New York, South Carolina and the state of Washington, as well as the greater Cincinnati area.

In 2022 Donald & I celebrated our 24th wedding anniversary. It doesn’t feel like it has been that long.

For our anniversary we hosted a party at our favorite Italian restaurant called Parma. We invited all of our local friends.

2022 has also brought some triumphs for my health. My full knee replacement has completely healed and I barely have a scar. Some pituitary issues have been resolved and are now under control. And my back treatments have stabilized my lower back issues until I’m well enough to have surgery for the issue. My balance has improved enough that I no longer need the walker. This has allowed me to start working on my blind cane training, which is coming along well.

Now for the downs, which have exclusively been health related. The first is my Mother in law, who shattered her femur. She also took a face plant into the door on the way down and looks like she’s been in a fist fight.

She spent four months in a rehab hospital and is still struggling to transition from the wheelchair back to a walker.

Just after my my mother in law fell, husband fell and tore his quad. After 5 months it didn’t heal, so he will be having surgery soon to repair it.

And the big down for the year is my vision loss. It continues to slowly degrade. I’m facing complete vision loss in the next few years so I’ve started to learn how to navigate with a cane. Once I learn to use the cane I can apply to get a seeing eye dog. That is my eventual goal.