Terry, Margaret will surely welcome any encouragement and emotional support that you can give to her, especially if she is going to be facing chemotherapy. If this does indeed happen, find out if she is expected to loose her hair. That is the one part of chemo that is so very depressing. I would suggest giving her a gift certificate to a good men's tie shop because they have lots of lovely scarves to chose from. Take her there on a shopping excursion then out to lunch, BEFORE her hair all falls out, Nice memory and she will need a little fun in her life when she gets to this stage. Other nice and very useful gifts might include a a bottle of fruit and veggie wash, a pair of warm bootie socks, a really warm but light weight acrylic throw, peppermint tea and a new mug, gingersnaps and pretzels to sooth the tummy, 2 journals ~ one for 'bits of joy' and one for notes on all doctor visits and little entries each day on how she is doing emotionally as well as physically, the Betty Crocker cancer cookbook which is categorized by 'symptoms' and what helps relieve each one, ie: constipation, loss of energy, nausea, etc. Maybe offer to come over once or twice a week to clean the bathroom, kitchen, etc. You can't imagine how the loss of energy just makes it not even worthwhile to even consider expending the energy trying to do these important tasks. Sometimes you'd rather just go back to bed and not look at the mess. Little individual sized prepared meals to pop into the freezer would be very welcome. I love mac and cheese on my 'bad tummy' days. Or turkey in gravy over mashed potatoes. guess you might call it comfort food!
OK, enough ideas. You get the idea. All of these gifts would show immense support for her. Maybe the gals in the office would like to join you in giving her some of them.
Hugs, Mariposa who has used all of the above items during chemo nd consider them all part of my own 'battle plan' to pamper myself and keep my spirits up.
