Thursday, January 28, 2010

No Longer With Us

Sorry that it has been so long since I last posted. The last two weeks have been pretty crazy. I'm not sure if you all knew, but we have had my grandma living with us. She has been in pretty bad health for the last few years and has been going steadily downhill. Luckily we have had a program through the county that sent in a care giver to help take care of her. Almost two weeks ago on, Friday, Jan 15 we got a call from her care giver saying she was doing really bad and that we needed to come home. My grandma has been on hospice for the last few months so we called hospice and they sent out a nurse. The nurse examined her and told us that she was in the process of dying and that we needed to try to keep her comfortable.

We called the whole family and let them know that they might want to come see her before she passed. My aunt and uncle ended up coming and staying the whole week. My grandma passed this last Friday. She was surrounded by family and while I am sad to see her go, I am also happy that she is no longer trapped in her failing body. I know that she is with my grandpa again again and I'm sure that she is much happier now. She has not truly been a part of our world for quite a while now and it is good that she can go onto the next stage of her life where she will be able to be herself again.

Her funeral is this Saturday. I have been asked to give the eulogy. I'm not really sure what I want to say. There have been so many thoughts that have been going through my mind. I know there are a few stories that she would want me to tell, like the fact that she lived on Alcatraz island (while it was still a prison). More than anything I just want to convey that she lived a good life and that all that knew her were made better by her love and support.

7 comments:

Robin said...

I'm sorry Julie. It's so hard to go through this, and you guys were so closely involved.

I hope the sevice is nice. Good luck with the eulogy, too. That's a lot of pressure! I would definitely try and write something down instead of winging it. That way, if you get emotional, you can pass the paper and someone else can finish for you.

((hugs))

~*JaYmE*~ said...

I'm so sorry for your loss... ((HUGS))

elephantscanremember said...

(Hugs) I am very sorry for your loss.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I am so sorry for your loss. My heart goes out to you and your family.

I am sure that whatever you decide to speak about, your grandma will be happy. ((((HUGS))))

Steph said...

(((((HUGS))))) I'm sorry for your loss Julie.

It sounds like your gramma lived a pretty adventurous life. When/if you feel up to it- I'd like to hear the Alcatraz story.

Misty Dawn said...

I'm so sorry for your loss Julie (((HUGS)))

Megan said...

I'm sorry I missed it, Carrie said you did a great job. It can be so hard to summarize 90 years into 10 minutes. I've been thinking about you a lot this weekend. I'll call you.