05/17/2026
HEY DUNCAN'S FAMILY!!! 🤗 So...what's up with all of you!!!???? 🤔🤔🤗😜I hope only good things have been happening for you all, but if you are like me...well....it's a mixed bag of good, not so good, and sometimes...really not good. 😮💨😬🙄
I haven't been posting as much...not because I don't have the time, and not because I have nothing to say...for those of you that know me...you KNOW I ALWAYS have a lot to SAY!😉🤣🤣🤪🫣....I just really needed the time to step back, and check in with myself. I'm not good at that. I blame myself a lot, for a lot of different things. I second guess my responses, my actions, and my feelings. It's a heavy process to make it make sense. 😮💨🫨 I feel like the way forward is by going back...back to when we put down our phones, back to when families would gather, and share their days, back to when we noticed our neighbors struggling, and helped in whatever way we could, back to manners, back to respect for others opinions, back to laughter, love, and community. Technology changes are valuable tools to help us connect more than we ever have been able to before. We can stay connected to family, and friends. We can travel without leaving our home. We can find new ways of making our loved ones lives easier. Unfortunately, we can also do the opposite. We can judge others. We can hide behind the screen, and dole out criticism, and punishment. We can voice hate, and intolerance for lives that are different than ours. We can bully, fight, and hold court in the comments...all without knowing anything about the person other than a quick video. Stand up for your beliefs. Absolutely. That is your right....at least for now.... but you don't have to tear down someone else to move forward. Stop comparing yourself to a heavily edited, and sanitized version of someone's life. I guarantee you that they have their own set of problems. You don't get out of this world alive. 🤣 I have my beliefs, and for anyone wanting to have a conversation about them, I am willing to do that. I have friends, and family that I love, and they are from all different beliefs, and backgrounds. We get loud, and we debate hard, but at the end of it, we respect our differences, and move forward in our own ways while helping others to do the same. I am gonna get off this soapbox now, but I felt compelled to write this after being exposed to so many video's full of people behaving in ways that are foreign to me, but also becoming the new normal. Please don't let this become normal🥺.....Now...if you are still with me...perhaps a quick update on Duncan's Diner Family... David Duncan- He is still at Kawasaki on day shift. He started there two weeks before we closed for good. He has been working overtime every week. 50 hours for a 52 year old diabetic with a host of medical issues is not easy, but he is sticking in there, and for that I am grateful.💜 Mason Duncan- He took a month off to rest, and figure out what to do next. He is still undecided about the future, but he has just started as a dishwasher/busboy, for Papa J's Kitchen!! It is part time, but it gives him what he needs until he figures out his next step. 💓 Like, and follow them on Facebook. 🥰They are the ones that bought, and renovated the building that we were renting from Stanley Mehrhoff. They are opened now, and from what I hear, you need to check them out!!! 😋😋😍🤩 Austin Duncan - He got a job at Walmart as a picker. He puts together online orders, and brings them to the customers vehicle. He has a different shift every week, so I don't see him as much as a momma would like, but he is doing ok, and is settling in. 💙A quick side note on Hannah Harris, and Josh Harris- they are still at the Isle of Capri in housekeeping, and doing well. 🥰 Lisa Perkins - She is at the goodwill store in Columbia, and works in receiving. They are still working as a family to keep going forward. I miss them, but we stay in touch on-line, and plan to grab lunch soon. 💞 Karen Parson aka The GREMLIN 🤣🥰- She is still my aunt😉🤣😍, and she is living in Pilot Grove again. Her hometown, and where the bulk of my mom's side of the family live. I have only been communicating with her through Facebook texts at the moment, because life has been hectic, but we plan on getting together soon, I hope. I miss her very much. 🥰 Tonya Brown- I regret that I have let this friendship slip a little, but she had went back to her previous job that she had, before joining our family. I miss her smile, and we definitely miss working with her. I wish she had come our way sooner, but she is, and will forever be, a part of the Duncan Family...there is no escaping once we have accepted you as our own! 😉😈🤪🐿🤣🤣🥰 Mama, mom, grandma extraordinaire, Wanda Bishop 💝- She starts Monday with another 5 day radiation of another small spot on her lungs. She is still on Keytruda, and it has helped keep the cancer at bay mostly, but she still struggles with the effects of COPD, heart failure, liver failure, and cataracts. The cancer will never leave her body, but her numbers look good, and the nurses, and doctors have been a God send. 💝 She is, and will always be my example of how to navigate this life. She still worries about others, and loves with all she has. I am so very grateful for her, and I wish I could do more, be more, and give her the world, or at least the peace that she deserves. She is my rock, my comfort, and my light in the darkness of my own doing. I love you, momma. Always. 💞....and then there's me🐿🧟♀️🫨....ugh🙄...do you really want to know?🫣....I saved myself for last because I simply don't know. I don't know how I am doing. On anything. My health journey is ongoing with doctor appointments of my own, and answers that are slow in coming. 🤨😮💨 I am still dealing with the audit, and trying to finalize the actual closing on paper of the diner. We are still being taxed for every day I don't get things done, and we were already in debt because of the diner, and all the problems that exist with an ever changing landscape of owning your own business. It went from the American dream, to the American nightmare of which I can't seem to wake up from. 💔 I am struggling right now, but I am gaining strength, and I am determined to work with God's grace instead of against it. I haven't made the best decisions, but the fact remains that the choices were made, and can't be undone. I keep the memories, and the love, and am rejecting the idea that I have to figure things out NOW, or all is lost. I still owe a lot of money, and depending on the outcome of the audit...🤷♀️🤑☠️💩...BUT...I am ENJOYING the struggle, the pain, and the chaos for the first time in my life. Does that seem weird, and foreign to some of you? I bet it doesn't seem as weird to those of you that have struggled against similar things. The pain means I am alive, and can still feel. The money issues will end however it ends. I will always owe money, and I can always make money. The money issues die when I do. Do I wish I had more money? OF course!! Duh....it makes life easier for the people I care about, but at the end of my life...when my loved ones remember me...my hope is that they remember time spent together, memories of laughter, and love. Times where I did my best for them, even if I felt it wasn't enough. Times where I showed up, and gave them what I could. The times I gave them encouragement, advice, and a hand up. The times I gave a smile, a shoulder to lean on, or an ear to listen. I hope they remember how much I appreciated them, and loved them with all my heart, and I am sorry for the times I failed to show it enough. The times I struggled inwardly, so that they could move forward, and make their own choices, their own mistakes, and their own struggle, and still come through it, and be proud of themselves. Most of all...I hope they remember that my choices, and failures had nothing to do with them, and were outcomes from my own struggles with life's little surprises. 💔❤️🩹❤️
For Anyone reading this far into what was supposed to be a quick how you doing😉🤣🤣🤷♀️...I will leave you the same way I always do...the same way I still hope for all of you, every day...As always, be kind, be safe, and LOVE TO ALL!!! 😘😘😘😘🐿🐿🤣🤣🫡🥰
