October 14, 2002

Carol (Dougan) Bowles passed away in April of this year after a long and valiant battle with numerous cancers. Carol's cancer began 12 years ago with breast cancer.
I was able to go to Long Beach in August and spend a week with Carol and Dave (her husband of 40+ years). Carol and I were able to enjoy a few "normal" things (beach, shopping, tourist stuff, lunches) but part of our time together was spent in Cedars of Sinai Hospital while Carol took a 4 hour chemo treatment.
The last few months of her life were particularly sad for someone who had devoted most of her life loving, cherishing and taking care of others.
It was an hour and a half car ride from Long Beach to LA (back roads because Carol couldn't handle the stress of riding on the freeway when she was nauseated from chemo). Four hours in Chemo...a wait to see the doctor then the trip back to Long Beach (again on back roads). [Wore me out and I'm healthy].
Carol's husband took off from work as often as he could to drive her, her daughter who lived in LA sometimes could drive her, sometimes neighbors, sometimes church volunteers.