Tru here.  Another friend is gone; Misty Stenslie Claassen was 43 years old.  She made the above zendoodle for me in December 2015.

When you have many friends with terminal disease, it creates several side-issues of grief, and that is a subject that needs addressed … but that is not my topic today.

Recently discovered my friend Misty was no longer with us.  She and I shared background of tickborne diseases, dementia symptoms, love of art, and current tool of zen-doodles.  We both spent years in antibiotic treatment for various tick-borne diseases.  Myself, I spent 5 years with the best doctors money could buy and large expenditures of out-of-pocket expenses.  My memory is shot so I do not remember exactly how long Misty spent with antibiotics (for Lyme Disease) and anti-malarials (for tick-borne babesia), but her obituary at http://minnesota.obituaries.funeral.com/2016/05/04/misty-claassen/ says, “… After a painful six year battle with tick-borne diseases and early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, Misty Stenslie Claassen died peacefully at her home on Saturday, April 30, 2016. ”

Like many friends, she had what I call an “end plan”, and put it into service; “I wanted to leave this world before the march of Alzheimer’s took away all of my joy. It was not “suicide” but rather a choice to die with some dignity.”  She did not fear what comes next, but was looking forward to being free of the pain, confusion, terror, and other symptoms of her disease.  There had already been times when she looked in the mirror and didn’t recognize the person looking back at herself.  There had been times that, when waking, she didn’t know who the man in her bedroom was and felt terror.  She needed assistance for grooming, adult diapers, and felt lost or afraid if her care-providers were out of sight, even in her own home.  … So, she left this world in peace.
In lieu of flowers, her request is that we all do something to make the world better.  “Some of the causes I cared the most about were people in and from foster care, animal welfare, sexual/reproductive health, and equal rights for all people. Donations in my name can be sent to the Foster Care Alumni of America. Thank you. I love you all.”

As Deputy Director for Foster Care Alumni of America (which she founded in 2004), Misty wrote this at Fostering Perspectives; http://www.fosteringperspectives.org/fpv15n2/Stenslie.htm .

May her memory be a blessing.  ❤

Links:

Obituary at http://minnesota.obituaries.funeral.com/2016/05/04/misty-claassen/;
“I Just Didn’t Have Anybody” May 2011 at http://www.fosteringperspectives.org/fpv15n2/Stenslie.htm ;
http://fixcas.com/scholar/Stenslie.pdf for Public Hearing on Prescription Psychotropic Drug Use Among Children in Foster Care May 8, 2008;
and half-hour tele-conference recording at http://www.nrcpfc.org/teleconferences/02-10-10.html for “National Resource Center for Permanency and Family Connections;
then, Foster Care Alumni of America is the the organization she founded and where she requested donations be made http://www.fostercarealumni.org/product/honor-misty-stenslie/ .

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