Maloof Memorial Brunch - June 5th

Rick will be honored at a memorial fund-raising brunch on Sunday, June 5th at noon. John Fager is one of the sponsors of the brunch at his beautiful Atlantic Hotel in Berlin. The plated brunch is $50 per person and it is expected to sell out. Tickets can be picked up at the Atlantic Hotel, or reserved by calling Arlene at 410-352-3749. Proceeds from the brunch will benefit a greenhouse to be built for the Environmental Studies students at Salisbury University. Additional funds will go toward printing more copies of his book "Path to Beauty: Ecology of Ancient Forests." His book will be available for sale, for the first time, at the brunch. We all miss him, but his love of life lives on!

Rick's Memorial book - A Path to Beauty: Ecology of Ancient Forests

A Path to Beauty: Ecology of Ancient Forests by Joan Maloof | Make Your Own Book

Rick's Memorial service

Rick's Memorial service

Joni Simpson has shared photos of Rick's memorial service on Facebook.
Thanks Joni!

Remembering Rick Maloof

Remembering Rick Maloof

There have been so many wonderful tributes in Rick's memory and this is just one of them. (Click on the link to see it.) From Simmons Buntin at Terrain.org

Rick was also honored at the recent Wicomico Environmental Trust (WET) annual dinner. Hundreds of people were treated to Rick's nature images as they networked, ate dinner, and listened to speakers. When Judith Stribling had her time at the microphone she publically acknowledged him as a wonderful person and great photographer. They also had his photo and paragraph about him in the program.

Letters to the Editor in the Salisbury Daily Times newspaper from non-profits MAC, inc. and LSSW remembered Rick for his generosity, and mourned his passing. The editor of the paper had his name in the list of top 20 notable passing in our community in 2010.

Chesapeake East (Dana Simson and John Orth) remembered Rick with a two-page color spread in their February calendar.

He is still alive in our hearts!

Memorial Service Details

Rick Maloof's Memorial Service will be held Sunday, Jan. 16th at 11am in the Fulton Hall Gallery of Salisbury University (1101 Camden Ave, Salisbury, MD). Here is a link to the campus map which shows Fulton Hall in the lower left quadrant: http://www.salisbury.edu/CampusMap/

Following the Memorial Service a celebration of Rick's life will be held at the Cactus Taverna restaurant (2420 N. Salisbury Blvd, Salisbury, MD, 410-548-1254).

Rick's water-related images will be on display in the gallery during the service, and will remain hanging for the Third Friday art event on Jan. 21st.

Rick's obituary

Check this link to read Rick's obituary:
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/delmarvanow/obituary.aspx?n=richard-d-maloof&pid=147484919

I am still planning the memorial gathering which will probably be held on Sunday, Jan. 16th, 11-1 at the Salisbury University gallery in Fulton Hall, with a gathering at Cactus Taverna to follow.
Check back for confirmation and details.

I feel surrounded by a bubble of love. Thank you all for your prayers, tears, food, flowers, and firewood. We will never forget Rick, but we will be OK.

A peaceful passing - by Joan

After a rough night, I was sitting by Rick's side this morning watching the beautiful sunlight on snow, and his last words were, "OK, let's get this over with." Then he looked upward, appeared lost in thought, shivered a bit, exhaled, and that was that. No pain, no anxiety. It was so beautiful that I couldn't cry. (I had done enough of that earlier, anyway.)

He is still at home, washed and wrapped in a shroud and lying in a beautiful, cool room. All of his children are here today and anyone who would like to drop by this week is welcome.

Thank you again for all your prayers and your love. He was, indeed, a special guy.
I'm not sure yet what the final arrangements will be. I'll post here when I know.

The first week home

We would not have made it home without Lloyd and Kaye's help. What amazingly generous friends!

Michael and Mihaela were our first visitors after we got home. They brought bags and bags of food. (Including a chocolate babka.)

After cooking, Mihaela even did the dishes. (Thank you!)

Our next visitors were Matt and Alex and their new baby Axel (awwww). Matt and Rick spend most of their time together talking about the winery.

(www.greatshoals.com). Alex and I got to take a walk and enjoy a winter sunset.

Rick doesn't get out of his bed much these days. On December 21st, the shortest, darkest ,day of the year we entered the Hospice program.

We love all the cards and emails. Know that Rick reads them all, even if they rarely get responded to. Most of the time he reads, listens to music, or sleeps.

We moved his bed into the very sunny living room and this morning he woke up feeling great. Alyssa is here for Christmas and she creates her own wonderful light.

We're home!

After Lloyd and friends pulled me through the snow in my wheelchair and in through the front door, the warm room made me feel as if I had been reborn.

We'll post more later.

Some good news for a change

Our dear friends Kaye and Lloyd came for a visit and we had a rare day off from treatments. This was a good reason to visit the coast about 20 miles south. As you can see it was a picture perfect day.

Tonight (Tuesday) the doctor came in with good news: the scan done this morning showed that the main kidney tumor had shrunk from 4.8 x 4.4 cm to 4.3 x 2.8 cm. The treatments are working! Soon we will be back home and continuing the home care program there.

The healing continues...

Some interesting political posters

No recycling containers anywhere.

Rick, waiting his turn at the radiation clinic.

So I ended up having the endoscope, it went easier than I expected. The whole procedure took only 20 minutes. Joan now has images of my ulcer downloaded on the computer for all of posterity. My best guess is that I have had it for quite a while - possibly from the Celebrex my GP gave me for "muscle pain." (Warning, never take Celebrex!) Meanwhile they are still trying to raise my red blood cell count from 8 to 10. As I write this there is a pint of blood dripping into me. Curioser and curioser, I figure I am now part Mexican as well as Irish and Lebanonese. I still have some dizziness, but I am getting stonger everyday.

I know I've mentioned it already but we have a wonderful sunny courtyard here that I have been sitting out in everyday. Our friends Kaye and Lloyd will arrive tomorrow to celebrate their anniversary with us. They got married at our house many years ago. How wonderful is that? And as a bonus while they're here the temps are expected to be in the 80s.

Two sessions of radiation treatment remain, they end on Tues. and will be followed by a CAT scan to determine my progress. This will help to determine future events and I must admit being a little nervous.

I feel all your love and prayers. Our spirits are good. Some have asked if specific prayers are needed. I ask that you pray for Everyone with cancer, not just me. I feel an abundance and I would like to share.

Love to you all, Rick

...well I'm back on the blog...finally!

Graffiti is universal

Little taco stands EVERYWHERE

A merman

(Joan snapped these pics in the short time she gets out each day.)

It's been awhle since I've posted,but there's a reason.Lots going on.My body has gone through some very interesting changes (as my dear friend Bill Rolig will attest to...as he went through similar changes). All the different formulas that they've been putting in us - through us, on a daily basis has different effects on different people.In my case,I have gotten really weak,dizzy to the point of losing my balance,and as such,pretty much confined to movement in the wheelchair.My blood pressure went down to 90/50, so they started me on transfusion (packs of blood) to bring my levels up. They also thought I had an ulcer,which may be part of the problem.Today they wanted to scope me to be sure.I talked them into giving me one more day,which proved to be fruitful, as I got better, enabling me to cancel it altogether.So they are making other changes in application of some of the drips(part of our daily 6-8 bags we get.)Currently,my BP is 100/60 and rising,My norm is usualy 110/70.The dizziness persists,as it did with Bill until a coupleweeks after arriving back home. Things WILL return to normal. My leg that was causing me some very intense pain due to the radiation,has subsided to acceptable limits now,and I should be able to get back to some meaningful PT soon,as well. Don't know what the "popping" sound was, but my back was better in a few days. All-in-all,nothing that can't be dealt with.

As far as daily life here...not all that bad,especially since I have Joan here..without whom,my life would be majorly,significantly,terribly different.She is,as I've said many,many times,my true angel.We have a daily routine that keeps us quite busy,and still have time to sit out on the deck by the pool in the 70's,catching rays,chatting with folks from around the globe..lots of Amish...where do they come from??? Their WHOLE family comes with the one person for treatment.Oh well,not so bad if you think about it.

Thanks sooo much to all the folks sending reads and movies...and especially the organic chocolate for my woman.We'll be watching a flick whilst eating some of those goodies sent to us tonight,in fact. Oh,and we have our very own Christmas decorations in our room.The nurses love them,and comment every time they come in to our room. Some of the other daily occurances: Trains with very loud whistles blowing off between 4:00 and 6:00 every morning..EVERY morning;a cat crying 3-4 times loudly EVERY morning at about 3:30 a.m.;police,etc sirens...evenings;and guard dogs from the complex next door,barking late night,early morning. But,other than that,things down here in Tijuana Town are just about fine!love to all of you.Keep them prayers and love coming.We love you all....Rickster