Community, my extended family, my close friends, lovely...but I have to admit at 6 p.m. today I am ready for some undemanding peace and quiet. It's been quite a week. I was just looking at my calendar, and there's so much written on it you can hardly see the numbers which indicate the dates.

Next week is more open, except for taking my husband to Thanksgiving dinner at a nice restaurant on Friday. Just made online reservations at an upscale place I've never been to before. Now, where did I put that credit card?

We won't be doing a family Thanksgiving, since my niece has end stage cancer and we are spending a lot of time either visiting her (just a few minutes each at a time) or providing support and food and babysitting for the family, who include both her parents and grandchildren. Nobody feels like observing Thanksgiving this year.

She will probably not make it to Christmas, and by then perhaps we will be able to spend time together, both grief and joy mixed together.