# @maryellenchiles on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DcKjiTuFhT1
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/69434731-maryellenchiles-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/a688ee460b.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-08-18T02:36:39.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Mary Ellen Chiles (@maryellenchiles) — https://gondola.cc/maryellenchiles

## Caption

On May 30th, I decided not to take photos at the ballgame. Instead, I spent more time with my sister, Liz, at the family farm. This is where our grandparents lived, and now my parents are there. 

I brought Liz ring popsicles of strawberry Liquid IV, strings of mozzarella, and photos of our youngest cousin. I handed her a notebook so she could write down her dose of morphine, because she kept track of everything. I saw her handwriting turn childlike, all caps and crooked letters. I didn't think much of it at the time. 

I told her I loved her, and to be good - but not too good - and explained that it's what I tell our family dog when I say goodbye. She smiled. 

Tomorrow, I thought, I'll come back and read excerpts from my grandfather's journal, the entries when they take trips with that group of grandkids. 

But she died three hours later, on May 30th, a couple of feet from where our grandfather had collapsed and died at 91 in 2015. 

Liz was 37.

Liz had just moved home on May 26th to continue chemo for ovarian cancer. 
We thought we had more time, though she had oxygen tubes and was terribly thin. I saw her get stronger as she recovered under the songs of the crickets and cicadas. 

I am glad she did not waste away any more.

In the meantime, on May 28th, my oncologist said she couldn't say if I had cancer or not, but I'd better get a hysterectomy, and how's next week?

The good news is my scans are all clear. And I watched a lot of World Cup. And I recovered at the family farm, too.

The bad news is my sister died. We were supposed to grow old together, the 7 kids, and find ways to see each other, regardless of our separate postal codes.

I am grateful that I followed my intuition and spent those hours with my sister, instead of spending them at the ballgame.

But now that I can walk, and carry a camera without feeling weak, and get back into the world again, it's so nice to be at a ballpark again.

## Stats

- **Views:** 0
- **Likes:** 45
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- **Comments:** 7

## Credits

| Name | Username | Profile | Role |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Mary Ellen Chiles | @maryellenchiles | https://gondola.cc/maryellenchiles | Photographer |

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