Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Catching Up On My Life

Wow, Blogspot has changed since I was here last!
Yeah, I know, it has been a very long time since we have 'talked'!   There has been a lot going on in my life, to put it mildly, and I have lost touch with my humorous side.  But I am determined to find it again and I hope writing again will help me find the funny in life again!
Let's catch up so you can see why I dropped off the face of the earth for awhile.
In December it became clear that my 97 yr old grandma could not continue to live on her own and it was going to fall on my sister and I to find a better living situation for her.  We had no idea how to do this.  Believe me when I say it sounds SO much more simple than it is!  My sister was in charge of medical and I was in charge of financial and living situation.  She was in pretty bad shape before we realized that she couldn't take care of herself any more.  Eventually we found a nice board and care home halfway between my parents house and ours (and ours are just a block away) so after a brief hospital stay we did our best to get her comfortably settled in there.  I guess it is not uncommon but it seemed that once she was there she just relaxed and started slipping away.  She wasn't even there a month before she lapsed into a coma and peacefully passed away.  This whole time was exhausting for us both physically and emotionally.  Even though she told me many times she was ready it was still a very bittersweet time.  During the course of relocation we spent a lot of time together sorting through her things and passing them along to various people.  We also got to spend a lot of time talking about our lives and telling stories.  We looked at pictures and Bibles and all sorts of things as she told me where they came from and who they were.  I had never really understood what people meant when they would say that it was a privilege to help someone as their lives were ending but it truly was a special time.  It is interesting to me how differently the generations view each other.  I saw her as a grandmother and not as a woman or as a mother and that is a very specific view I think and all the sweeter for it. So no sooner than I had just about gotten her affairs in order and she was settling in, I had to make funeral arrangements.  We had spoken quite a lot about her wishes also and she had left a special outfit so she made things easy.  We teased her that she hadn't put underwear in the clothes bag and that we were going to go to Victoria's Secret and get something leopard print.  She just chuckled at my sister and I.  She often did.  I wonder what she thought (Good Lord, those girls are just crazy).  She had a lovely memorial service and her oldest great-granddaughters sang a beautiful duet.  I think she would have been pleased.  I hope we made her proud.  I have a lot of great memories of her but what always stood out was that she always told me I was a strong woman and I would be able to handle the hard things in life.  Though other people have told me that, there was something about the way she told me this that made me believe that she was right.
This is enough for today, though there is more to tell....... Check back tomorrow....
I have missed you!  I hope you are happy I am back!

2 comments:

ltlrags said...

I'm very happy that you're back, and also so glad that you had that time with your grandmother before she passed. I wish I would have had that time to look through pictures and re-live my dad's past with him. I would love to know who those people are in all those pictures. I'm sure you managed quite a beautiful ceremony for her, but the real homage is what will go on in your thoughts in the months and years to follow. I just had a dream about my dad last night, and I talk to him whenever I see how messy he left his tools (I used to get in trouble for that all the time!).

Kym said...

I'm so sorry to hear about your grandma...hugs for you and Monica.....