Laura Lee Ricker was a woman that made an impact on every person she met. She had the greatest sense of humor and was always armed with a good joke (most of them dirty!) She was clever, quick witted, and one of the most intelligent women I’ve ever met. My mother didn’t have the easiest life. She suffered a lot of loss, a lot of pain and a lot of heartache. And I’m sure that having ME as a daughter caused her more than a fair share of grief. But my mother was a trooper, always ready for whatever came her way, and managed to make the best out of any situation. She was a hard worker, and provided the best she could for me and my siblings. Dispite our differences and quarrels over the years, I always loved my mother, and I know that she loved me and accepted me for who I am- even if she wasn’t too crazy about the decisions I’d made. She was a loving grandmother, and was so proud when I gave her the first grandchild. Although she didn’t want to be called grandma, said it sounded too old… so “Bumma” was her title. So many people were blessed with having this woman in their lives, and I hope she knows how much she was loved.
My mother was a smoker. She smoked for 40+ years. She tried many times to quit, used the patch, the gum, hypnosis, and good old cold turkey. But despite cutting back dramatically, she never totally quit- until the very end.My mother was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor (cancerous) after having a mild stroke. After testing, it was also found that she had lung cancer. During her treatment for the cancer, her medication was making her bowels sluggish, and the doctor gave her something to help. Her “boyfriend” suggested she try a Senocot suppository to get things moving. Instead of consulting the doctor first, she allowed this moron to administer the suppository. Now Senocot suppositories are POWERFUL, not your typical glycerin suppository. And the next day, on her way to radiation treatment in Kingston, in a car driven by Cancer Society volunteers, my mother suddenly had severe abdominal pain. She was rushed to the hospital, and it was discovered that her bowel had perforated. Her “boyfriend” tried to say that the suppository HE had given her didn’t cause this, that she had an underlying bowel condition. But that turned out to be a crock of shit (pardon the pun)
My mother ended up having to have emergency surgery to put a colostomy in place (a bag where the fecal matter goes, instead of passing thru the bowel and out the rectum) While open on the table, they also removed her ovaries (a partial hysterectomy)
In a very short period of time after this surgery, my mother got an infection in her colostomy. This infection hospitalized her. And it wore her body down to nothing. The infection is what ended up killing her.
If her boyfriend had just let the doctors prescribed medicine do its job, and left the Senocot suppositories on the shelf, I have to wonder if my mom would’ve had a little more time….
I my opinion, James Cowie is what killed my mother. Not cancer, not infection. Him and his self-medicating methods.
