This is my first attempt, not at writing but at blogging and so if I screw anything up, just send me a post or an email so I can learn.
I am a widow, age 64, who has lived five or ten different lives during my one life. I will only blog about the ones that I believe are important to others or at least interesting.
Before anything else, I have to explain that the past two years have been the hardest years of a hard life because I have lost the two people who gave me compass and balance. In April, 2008 I lost my beloved husband, John Kopystenski, to the Agent Orange illnesses that had plagued him since his return from Vietnam in 1966, but just took the 42 years of our life together to finish him off. My anger at the chemical companies and the government that allowed this to happen and sat passively by, shaking their heads in denial, is never going to be softened. My anger at all the unfinished plans that Johnny and I had for our "golden years" but will now never get to do, is lessened by the memories of my best friend, my life partner, my husband and all the things that made my life, no matter how hard, just great.
The second and probably the worst loss was of my beloved little grandson, Giovanni Kopystenski, who died by a terrifying gun accident in July of 2009. To know my grandson was to know perfection. You can read about him and what my son and I want to do as his legacy by going to: www.giovannislegacyfoundation.org and then posting to let me know what you think or if you want to help; money is important, but we are more interested in time and effort. Gio was one month before his sixth birthday when we lost him. He was a gifted, high-functioning autistic child who was destined, despite his limitations, to be an Olympic something because of his athletic and gymnastic abilities. He was also the most beautiful, most handsome, most adorable little boy ever known and I am not being "just a Grandma".
I spent the years of 1976 through 1988 as a full time activist and lobbyist for the Vietnam combat veterans and Agent Orange victims. My activism came from the fact that the government had screwed with the people I loved more than life itself, my husband and my son born in 1977 with inherited birth deformities and effects which he suffers from to this day. In the October 1987 issue of Woman's Day Magazine, I was chosen as an Outstanding Woman of America, for my efforts and my work. Ironically, in May of 2009, one year after my beloved husband was taken from me, I found myself in Paris, addressing the International Tribunal of Conciousness on Agent Orange, which determined that the use of Agent Orange and dioxin poisoning in Vietnam, during the war, was a bonafide "War Crime". To date, nothing has come from the verdict of that judicial tribunal. What a surprise. Oh well, we can talk about all this next time.
