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Waiting for the big muscle to heal
Part 3 of a memoir of heart failure, open-heart surgery and complications At some point in my recovery at the acute-care facility, a cardiologist tells me that the muscles in my body will not recover any faster than the big muscle, my heart, recovers.I do…
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The sawblade embedded in my neck
Part 2 of a memoir of heart failure, open-heart surgery and complications The journey home is one of 10,000 steps, and the first one is always the most difficult. On March 23, 2021, I am released from Allegheny’s heart failure unit to an acuity unit…
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Are you ready to die, Carl Feather?
A memoir of heart failure, open-heart surgery and complications I have chased sunsets most of my life, although of late I’ve not had no passion for such pursuits. Nevertheless, on that evening in February 2021 was before me the most stunning example of a fading…
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Decoration Day
It is Memorial Day weekend in the United States, but in Appalachia, particularly West Virginia, it is more commonly referred to as “Decoration Day.” My parents, Carl J. and Cossette (Watring) Feather, seemed to have a standing engagement in West Virginia each May, for the…
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Mountaineer aviator
Most of us will have one memorial, our gravestone. According to writer Derek Coleman, an England native living in West Virginia, Louis Bennett Jr. has at least 12, all funded by his late mother, Sallie Maxwell Bennett of Weston, Lewis County. The memorials range from…
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Full Circle in Lenox
One might guess that Preston County’s oldest, continuously operating business is a funeral home. Not so, although at one time, a funeral home operated in the north section of the Lenox Store, founded in 1882. Located on the Brandonville Pike just a stone’s throw south…