Yesterday was Memorial Day, a day we honor those who gave their lives in defense of our democracy. I read lots of great tributes about our veterans and the sacrifices they and their families have made. Words are great, but what we really need is action. Action that has meaning. How about giving all veterans Medicare for life and while we are at it, how about Medicare for life for immediate family members of those who gave their lives for our country. As Medicare patients they would have access to the same healthcare facilities and doctors that I have available to me. Let’s reconfigure VA hospital and clinics to deal with specific long-term care required by the veterans who have disabling injuries or medical issues, including mental health.
The VA Hospitals have a terrible reputation for their lack of clinical efficiency and quality. Lets allow the VA to specialize in those military type injuries and leave the primary and tertiary care to those who do it well. It is a win-win for those who have put their lives on the line for our country.
The Memorial Day holiday visitors have left Petoskey. Today I played golf at Boyne’s The Heather, one of the top 100 courses in the country. We teed up at 1:00 and never saw another golfer the entire round. We played 18-holes under 3 hours which was an hour and fifteen minutes faster than the recommended pace. Sunny and 80 made it a special day.
There was a great article in the Detroit News today about Suzy Merchant, former MSU and EMU women’s basketball coach, who retired from MSU recently at age 53 following a medical issue that led to a single person car accident. Here are excerpts from the article.
Merchant, 53, had thought about retirement for quite some time, especially after COVID, when for a while she was forced to slow down, and kind of liked it. Then came the big changes in college athletics, with Name, Image and Likeness, and the transfer portal, and it wasn’t the same game she loved as a star point guard in Traverse City and at Central Michigan, and even when she was first an assistant coach at Oakland University, making a part-time salary for full-time work — $12,000, plus an extra $3,000 for running the Gus Macker tournament.
On the morning of Saturday, Jan. 28, Merchant was in a hurry, like usual. She had left her house on the eastern edges of Okemos, when she realized she forgot something at home and turned around. At home, with Rakan on the couch watching TV, she raced upstairs, grabbed what she was looking for, and quickly left again, headed to a final practice before the team’s flight to Champaign, Illinois, where they would play the No. 22-ranked Illini.
Merchant turned out of her subdivision, headed south on Meridian Road, and figured she got maybe a mile down the road when she started feeling odd. Her heart was racing. She began to feel light-headed. And the next thing she remembered, a good Samaritan, who must’ve recognized her, was asking if “Coach” was OK. Merchant said she had passed out and struck a tree on the north side of the road. She said she hit the tree at 40 mph.
“I worked myself to near-death, I guess,” Merchant said in 2017.
“It’s the third time it happened to me,” Merchant said this month. “I would have other instances, but nothing where I really passed out. I’d get light-headed, my heart would race, something’s wrong, there’d be pressure in my chest. What is going on? I’m coaching, with two kids, recruiting, living out of a fire hose. For 16 years, I never had a personal-care physician. If I had a cold, I’d see the (MSU) doctors.
“I was really bad at taking care of myself.”
After the shooting incident at MSU in February, she wanted to go back to her team, but they still didn’t know what was wrong.
Gary Rakan, Merchant’s high-school classmate at Traverse City High (now Traverse City Central) and husband of 16 years, said no. Merchant recalled his words: “You have a team at home, too, and if you go there and you don’t know what’s wrong with you, and you have another incident and never wake up, is that something you can live with?”
It was a jarring and emotional conversation between Merchant, a head basketball coach for 28 years between stops at Saginaw Valley State, Eastern Michigan and Michigan State, and Rakan, who has a far more sarcastic personality than an emotional one.
“I cried. He had tears in his eyes,” Merchant said. “When he said those words, the way he said them, that just hit me to the core. I didn’t really care (about basketball) after that. I was OK with missing it.
“It’s the first time I felt like I had to put myself first for my family’s sake, and I’m glad I did.”
On March 12, MSU announced Merchant’s retirement, which incidentally was the same day she was at Mayo Clinic for a battery of tests. It was also the same day the transfer portal opened following the season.
She doesn’t miss it, particularly the never-ending hours and commitments (she would host the family Christmas every year, only because she always had to be back to work on Dec. 26), and particularly in this new era. She wanted to get her players a degree; she never wanted to have to think about NIL. She never wanted to have to re-recruit her own players, for fear they’d transfer. See my Quote of the Day
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Quote of the Day: “I am so happy….I really am grateful for my family. Most people retire when their kids are gone. I’ve got my kids still. I’ve missed a lot. I love it. I wish I would’ve done it earlier, you know? But, there was a plan for it. I guess it all worked out.” Former MSU and EMU head women’s basketball coach, Suzy Merchant, who announced her retirement in March at age 53.
Orchid of the Day: President Biden and Speaker McCarthy for brokering a deal to suspend the debt limit for two years.
Onion of the Day: The extremists of both parties who oppose the deal on the debt limit.
Question of the Day: Would I do it again? The question that was asked of me after I walked Boyne’s Sky Bridge in the Fall of 2022. The answer is yes. I walked it again this past weekend and I plan on doing it many more times. See my Image of the Day.
Image of the Day:
From Boyne’s Sky Bridge Sunday May 28, 2023
You know it’s a good debt limit deal when both sides of the political spectrum.are complaining. Compromise who da thunk it? Nice work Joe. Jeff
Tom: For the first time this year, the blog fits horizontally on my screen. I don’t know if it’s a different size font or what, but it works well. Thanks Frank Wagner