News from Meerkat Manor... and a tribute to Tim Russert

Wow! I just realized that although I have been blogging in my head for weeks now, it just hasn't seemed to make it on to the web. As most of you know, I've been otherwise occupied. As I've said to some of you, I feel like those crazy madcap residents of Meerkat Manor - a jam-packed underground life, with only an occasional chance to raise my head out of the home hole. Thankfully, the glimpses of daylight have been much more friendly than that old arcade game of Whack-A-Mole! My contacts with the outside world have been, thanks to all of you, filled with smiles, shoulders to cry on, healing golden light and heartfelt prayers.

Am I still multi-tasking? You bet your life, boy and HOW! But since the day my world stood still - that would be the day the doc told us that Larry's routine colonoscopy had uncovered a malignant tumor that needed immediate surgery - well, I'm sure you get the picture. My multi-tasking gene kicked into overdrive as I became totally, acutely and in-your-face aware that life as we know it is precious, fleeting and all-too-soon can be taken away in the blink of an eye - or in our case - the uttering of just a few words.

This was brought home to me all the more last Friday when, while on the way to pick up H from his summer week away from home at Scout Camp, we heard Tom Browkaw share the shocking news that Tim Russert had died of a heart attack while prepping for his weekly Meet the Press.

Tim Russert. Now there was a multi-tasking man, if ever there was one. Taking time and care with his aging father, breaking away from the most hectic political season in (some say) history to share Italy with his wife and recent college graduate son to, while maintaining more than one highly recognized television show - and all the time keeping up with friends, their kids and their lives - birthdays, sports teams, illnesses. Wow! A man after my own heart. An MTW brother/sister under the skin.

Just 58 years old, he could have been my big brother, or just a few classes ahead of me in school. A best guy buddy from next door. For that's the way so many of us saw him. Just a regular guy - our voice, if you will - speaking out by asking the questions WE wanted answered. What a loss. Certainly for his wife, his son and his dad Big Russ. But a loss that many of use feel all to closely. Taken away in the prime of life. At the top of his game. It could have been me. My husband. You.

If ever a person could be said to have died 'happy,' his friends and colleagues say that surely it was Tim Russert. I know that he's certainly left an invaluable legacy for me. One that is at the same time universal and deeply personal. He's willed me an unmatched reminder of what a gift I've been given with Larry's excellent prognosis. An awareness that every day, every hour, every moment COUNTS. And that what we choose to do with our time is exactly that - OUR CHOICE!

So I hope you'll raise your head up out of your own personal Meerkat Manor (yes, I know you have one!) and join me in a toast to Tim. He may not be Father Time, but he certainly epitomized Time Well Spent.

Here's to you, Tim!