u/PriestOfNothing1

CW, estrangement and parental death (kept non-specific, but I still wanted to warn in case the topic was off-putting to anyone!)

I'm going to take a family trip soon to see a parent at the end of their life. We do not have a close relationship, but I want to say goodbye and feel they have earned that much from me, if little else. I wanted something to take with me on the road, as I suspect this time will be very stressful for both past and present reasons, and was wondering if anyone had any cozy recs where a parent's death isn't treated as a straightforward, uncomplicated loss—stories that make room for grief, anger, relief, ambivalence, happiness, complicated feelings, etc? And/or, stories of familial estrangement that lead to found family?? I could use reminders of the chosen family I have waiting for me when I'm through!

I specifically do not want healing/reconciliation in the parent/child relationship. Strongly prefer an audiobook, but ebook would work as well. I hope this makes sense and thanks in advance!

Hi everyone. Have a bit of a question I'm not sure anybody can help with, but posting just in case.

I've started donating at CSL, and am totally blind. Normally this has meant that someone needs to go through the screener questions with me, which is fine but puts more work on the staff and often increases my time spent at the center. At my last donation, I offhandedly mentioned that I wished I was able to take the screener on my own using my own device, and was told I should be able to do so. However, my account had been flagged for checkin only because of my blindness.

After demonstrating that I was in fact capable—as most blind folks are—of using a smartphone, I was told that the head doctor and other center staff had okayed that flag to be removed from my account, so I should have been able to answer the questions independently. But when I logged in this morning to try and do so, I got the following message: Your donor profile does not permit a self-administered health history questionnaire. Please visit your donation center to donate.

Naturally I called them right away, and was told that, even though everyone at the center was ok with it, someone from higher up told them they couldn't remove that flag for safety reasons. So I called corporate and was basically told that they didn't know anything and that the problem was likely with Donor 360, the third party that handles those questions. But the center staff made it sound like it was someone at CSL directly.

So I guess my question is, does anybody have thoughts about who is the likely blocker in this situation? Or any numbers/email addresses to reach out to in either organization that might be a bit higher up the chain? I'd really like to both be able to independently enter medical information and save everybody some time. Thanks for any resources/advice. Happy to answer any questions as needed.