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SIMON SAYS 2003Updated March 5, 2005. Look for the NEW symbol to find the most recently added items.
December 28, 2003 "Things Kids and Parents Say"NEW
Simon and Miriam were in the bathtub together, and Mary "ooh"-ed and "ah"-ed over them.
Mary: "How did I get so lucky to get you two kids?"
Simon: "You didn't get lucky. You got pregnant with us!"
[posthumous] December 12, 2003 "A Good Dream"NEW
Simon: "Daddy, I had a good dream."
Markus: "What was it about?"
Simon: "I was sitting in a trailer, pulled by golden swans, above the clouds."
Markus: "Where were you going?"
Simon: "To Oberlin!"
Markus: "Who was steering the swans?"
Simon: "They were going by themselves!"
[Simon's grandparents live in Oberlin, Ohio. Before moving out to Salt Lake City, we made frequent trips to visit with them from Ann Arbor.]
[posthumous] October 29, 2003 "Fine"
Coping with a fever and various pains during a long week of scans and tests at the hospital, Simon gamely offered this fine expression of self-esteem.
"I don't care if [my friends] at school can run faster than me. That's OK, because I think I'm fine just the way I am."
October 24, 2003 "Platelets and P.E."NEW
Mary: "Your platelets are pretty low today. Not super low. But you need to be careful in P.E. Just don't be too wild."
Simon: [Exasperated] "But the whole point of P.E. is to be wild! If I can't be wild then I won't get any exercise!"
[posthumous] September 5, 2003 "Mixed Wishes"
Shortly after moving to Salt Lake City, Mary and Markus "impulse bought" a piano for our new home. It's a simple Baldwin upright (baby grand strings) in a deep, rich walnut. The delivery of the piano was quite the event.
Simon: "I'm the only one in my family who's not so excited about the piano."
Mary: "Are you glad the rest of us are excited about it?"
Simon: "I was wishing sometime that the rest of my family would be so happy. And now my wish came true."
[posthumous] September 4, 2003 "Big Question"
Simon: "Mommy, when will my cancer be gone?"
[posthumous] September 3, 2003 "Observation"
Watching TV at the hospital during a clinic visit:
Simon: "Hey, Mom, they have a weird dot-com: Snickers-dot-com!"
[posthumous] August 18, 2003 "Follow Your Heart"
Simon: [solemnly] "You have to follow your heart."
Mary: "What does that mean for a mommy of a boy with cancer?"
Simon: [pause] "It means she has to take care of him and hope that he will get better."
[posthumous]
August 11, 2003 "A Comment on the Heat and the Drought in Utah"
Simon: "Rain dances don't really help rain come. It's just an imaginary thing." [wise smile]
[posthumous]
August 9, 2003 "Miriam's Interest in the Violin"
Miriam heard the sound of a violin on the radio and got the urge to hear Markus play. She combined it with her activity of the moment by saying:
Miriam: "Daddy, will you play your violin while I wash my hands?"
Miriam and Markus had a tutorial/concert together in the bedroom right away. There's no time like the present to involve a child in live music-making!
July 23, 2003 "They Might Be Giants Concert"
Our family became fans of the They Might Be Giants CD, "No!" after learning about it from the Boyse-Peacor family in Ann Arbor. So, we were excited to see them on the schedule for Red Butte Garden's outdoor concert series. Take a look at the WHAT'S HAPPENING Archive (July 24, 2003 entry) for an account of the concert.
We had just moved to Salt Lake City on July 11, and Simon was thinking a lot about the friends he'd left behind in Michigan. In the midst of the fun and frenzy of the concert, here's what he said:
Simon: "I have lots of friends. I have lots of friends nearby. Like Andre and Marcello. Do you know how I know they are nearby? They're near because they're in my heart."
[posthumous] July 11, 2003 "The Day We Moved to Utah"
This quote is written on back of the wildly complex schedule page I was carrying in my purse during the summer of 2003. The rest of the context isn't clear. However, I know the date. It was the day we flew from Traverse City, Michigan to begin residence in Salt Lake City. We were mid-diagnosis of Simon's crisis with immune-mediated thrombocytopenia (super-low platelets because of auto-immune response to other therapy). We arrived late morning and had an appointment for Simon at Primary Children's hem/onc clinic that same afternoon. I imagine the comment came somewhere around the visit to the clinic.
Simon: "I know one question that not even the doctors know."
Mary: "What's that?"
Simon: "Where did my cancer come from?"
[posthumous] July 1, 2003 "Beauty and the Beast"
Simon and Mary went to see Beauty and the Beast on Broadway in New York with Amber Dimkoff and her friend Jen. Watching Belle look on in distress as the beast loses his strength after a fight with Gaston, Simon said:
"Even if he's gone, he'll always be with her. Right, Mommy?"
July 2003 (undated) "One Good Thing About Cancer"
Simon: "One good thing about cancer is, if you spit on someone, they can't get it."
[posthumous] June 24, 2003 "Plans for Tomorrow"
Wondering what we'd be doing in New York the next day, sightseeing or hospital stuff, Miriam asked:
"Mommy, is Simon going to have cancer tomorrow?"
June 24, 2003 "Singing a Song"
Miriam has learned many songs, and she loves to sing them in her clear, strong voice. Here's a favorite "interpretation" of a spiritual:
"Nobody knows the trouble I am."
[The original goes: "Nobody knows the trouble I seen. Nobody knows my sorrow."]
June 8, 2003 "What Makes the Boy and Girl Get Married"
Simon: "If the girl thinks the boy is handsome, and the boy thinks the girl is pretty, then they get married. [Pause] I think I know why you can speak German. When you met Daddy in Germany, he thought you were pretty, so he taught you to speak German."
[In fact, it was Mary's facile German that was one of the initial points of attraction for Markus. Over time, Mary and Markus also learned to speak "normally" with each other in English. Since Simon's illness, English has become the dominant language for our family.]
[posthumous] May 26, 2003 "Memorial Day"NEW
All four of us traveled to New York on May 25 for Simon to begin 3F8 antibody therapy on the Tuesday after Memorial Day. So, we spent the holiday in the City.
Mary: "Today is a holiday."
Simon: "What's its name?"
Mary: "Memorial Day."
Simon: "What's it for?"
Mary: "It's a day when we think about people who died in wars."
Simon: "So, it's kind of a sad holiday. [Brightly] But I don't know anyone who died in a war! [More somberly] But I remember the policeman in the newspaper, standing under a sign, crying. And you said it was his friend who died."
[I can remember looking at this photo with Simon, but I don't recall the context. It seems too far away from 911 to be an image from that catastrophe, but it may be that.]
[posthumous] May 14, 2003 "A New Aphorism"NEW
In New York City.
Simon: "Hey Mom, I just noticed something. Pretend makes perfect."
[posthumous] May 12, 2003 "The Self"NEW
Somewhere in New York City.
Simon: "Everybody's their own self. And everybody is how they are!"
[posthumous] May 8, 2003 "Preparing for Our First Trip to New York City"NEW
Simon: "Is New York City ruled by a king?"
[posthumous] May 8, 2003 "Art"NEW
Simon: "When you're beading, you're making art!"
[posthumous] March 12, 2003 "A Little Pneumonia"NEW
For anyone who thinks children don't pay attention to the medical talk around them, listen to this update that Simon gave Mary when she arrived to "change shifts" with Markus at the hospital.
Simon: "Do you know what they saw on one side of my x-ray? A little bit of amonia [sic]. But not a lot. And that's good. It won't take long to go away. Not like my cancer. That takes a long time to go away."
[posthumous] March 8, 2003 "Old People"NEW
Simon and Mary read a book from Mary's childhood called, Annie and the Old One. In the story, the girl Annie spends time with her grandmother before she dies of old age.
Simon: "I'm going to die before my sister."
Mary: "Why do you think that?"
Simon: "Because I'm older. Unless something happens to her."
[posthumous] January 25, 2003 "Learning to Write Letters"NEW
Simon was working hard at kindergarten to learn his letters. He demonstrated a new letter: lowercase "e".
Simon: "Sometimes I make little mistakes, but that's all part of learning."
[posthumous] January 24, 2003 "Time with Grandparents"NEW
Very enthusiastically:
Simon: "I had a whole day with Grann and Grandad!"
[posthumous] January 24, 2003 "Miriam Wants to Be a Grown-up"NEW
Miriam: "I want to be a grown-up."
Mary: "Why do you want to be a grown-up?"
Miriam: "I want to make dinner like a grown-up."
[posthumous] January 21, 2003 "Simple Pleasures"NEW
Simon: "This is what I always wanted! All four of us together in the living room, doing things!"
[posthumous] January 18, 2003 "Making Cancer Go Away"NEW
Simon: "Zip, zap! That's all we have to do to make my cancer go away!"
Mary: "Yes, We're waiting right now for your blood counts to go up so you can get more chemotherapy to make your cancer go away."
Simon: "Go away? You want me to go away?"
Mary: "No, I want your *cancer* to go away!"
Simon: "Oh, because if you want me to go away, then all you need is my cancer not to go away, and then I would die!"
[Simon ran forward, clearly intending not to die of cancer.]
[Posthumous] January 2003 "Big Appetite"NEW
Indicating his big appetite:
Simon: "I'm the yummiest!"
[posthumous] SIMON SAYS ArchiveSimon has been saying amazing things for a long time, and many more are documented in previous months. Take a look if you haven't been there yet, or go back to see some of your favorites! Please note, we are working to fill up the gaps in the chronology.
SIMON SAYS June-August 2004 NEW SIMON SAYS January-May 2004 NEW SIMON SAYS 2003 NEW SIMON SAYS October-December 2002 NEW SIMON SAYS January-September 2002 Leftovers SIMON SAYS September 2002 SIMON SAYS August 2002 SIMON SAYS July 2002 SIMON SAYS June 2002 SIMON SAYS May 2002 SIMON SAYS April 2002 SIMON SAYS March 2002 SIMON SAYS February 2002 SIMON SAYS December 2001/January 2002
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