Hello, and welcome back to The Malik Report.
Here’s the long story as to why I haven’t been around:
It’s been nine months since my now 81-year-old aunt fell down the stairs and broke her back and neck. Shortly thereafter, she found out that she had congestive heart failure, she got COVID at the nursing home where she spent much of October.
After a relatively quiet November and December, January and February included two more hospital stays–one for the entire month of February–due to a really horrible flare-up of ulcerative colitis, an illness we didn’t know she had until it hit her like a truck of bricks.
She then spent a couple of months regaining her mobility (spending a month bedridden is not good for you), learning how to deal with a slate of new medications, and getting used to her new life.
My life also has changed significantly over the course of the last nine months. I’ve become Aunt Annie’s primary caregiver a much more hands-on sense of the term. Aunt Annie needs help from the time she wakes up until the time she goes to sleep, at least in terms of medications (she takes 21 prescriptions, which I organize and refill when necessary), mobility (she’s using a walker right now), meal preparation, and sometimes wound care (thanks to a fall this past weekend).
It’s a different kind of life. I’ve gotten used to it, but it’s not easy. And we both understand that it’s never going to be like it was prior to her fall.
She and I have also talked about possibly re-starting the blog, especially with the 2023 NHL Draft looming, and the Red Wings’ summer development camp around the corner.
Nine months after Aunt Annie fell down the stairs, I’ve come to appreciate how the blog affords me the ability to build my own identity, and to work to relay news and information to an audience that I’ve missed very much since September 23rd, 2022.
I’m not sure how the blog is going to work with me splitting time between blogging and caregiving. Life is different now when I’m not behind the computer, and that means that some things will change.
I certainly have no idea how I’m going to do game recaps come October, for example, or whether I’ll need to bring Aunt Annie up to Traverse City with me to attend the fall prospect tournament and training camp.
But I want to give this one more try. I hope to be online to cover the first round of the 2023 Draft on Wednesday evening, and to take things from there. Given that this is the busiest week-and-a-half of the year–between the draft, the Red Wings’ summer development camp, and the start of free agency–it’s going to be a baptism by fire, but I’ve okayed the concept with the aunt, I’ve talked to the therapist about it…
And as incredibly afraid as I am of this entire scenario, it’s just time to try to get back to work, and to determine whether this works for me (and you).
I still want to give you as much as I possibly can in terms of Red Wings news, prospect coverage, and as everyone is doing it, I’m still considering doing some sort of podcast.
But I’m at a point in my life where caring for Aunt Annie comes first, and if that means that I’m second or third (or sixth) in getting to some news stories, that may have to be the case.
As you also might imagine, not being able to work on the blog has also reduced us to trying to survive on AA’s Social Security check, my Adult Services Medicaid Waiver Program check, and food stamps, so we’re struggling to pay our bills.
I’m plain old going to need to raise funds to plain old get downtown and back in a 17-year-old automobile which desperately needs an oil change and a repair/replacement of a scraping, screeching right rear brake pad. Hell, right now, I’d love to be able to afford the gas to get down there.
Anyway, here are the fiscal “deets”: We have a GoFundMe that goes right to AA’s bank account, and:
You can also use PayPal at https://paypal.me/TheMalikReport, Venmo at https://venmo.com/george-malik-2, Giftly by using my email, rtxg@yahoo.com, at https://www.giftly.com. And you can contact me via email if you want to send me a paper check. I’m also on Cash App under “georgeums” (an old nickname).
Thank you for reading. Tonight, it’s, “Here we go!”
