my grandma ..
my grandma (dad's mom) died last week at 87 years old. my parents were visiting me on a cross country trek to see all 4 of their kids, and my dad called her nursing home for his nightly check-in, to find out that her health was rapidly deteriorating. they packed up after mom and i spent half the night in a laundromat, and left early the next morning. they arrived at their home in kansas the next night and got the call the next morning as they were packing the car to head to texas and making dog-sitting arrangements.
grandma's cousin thelma was with her that night, and thelma's daughter sneaked ice cream into the ICU after she heard a nurse refuse my grandma's request for a cone, grandma even offering to pay for a cone for the nurse if she would get it for her. grandma got her ice cream, doc gave her a lil something "for her pain" and she comfortably drifted off to sleep. she never woke up, passing at 9:45 the next morning, as peacefully as one can die. thelma and her daughter were with her when she went.
i didnt attend the funeral, for various reasons, but said my own good-bye as i planted a circle of pansies, which grandma was named after, in my garden. i didnt feel the loss last week so much but it sure is giving me a hard time today. i cant seem to stop crying for my grandma, and am trying to take comfort that she is likely very happy to be out of her broken and painful body and is now with her love, her husband, my grandpa.
we should all be so lucky as to have such a full, love-filled life as my grandma's, as well as such a quiet dignified death.
raise your glass to Pansy and hug your (or any) grandma ...
grandma's cousin thelma was with her that night, and thelma's daughter sneaked ice cream into the ICU after she heard a nurse refuse my grandma's request for a cone, grandma even offering to pay for a cone for the nurse if she would get it for her. grandma got her ice cream, doc gave her a lil something "for her pain" and she comfortably drifted off to sleep. she never woke up, passing at 9:45 the next morning, as peacefully as one can die. thelma and her daughter were with her when she went.
i didnt attend the funeral, for various reasons, but said my own good-bye as i planted a circle of pansies, which grandma was named after, in my garden. i didnt feel the loss last week so much but it sure is giving me a hard time today. i cant seem to stop crying for my grandma, and am trying to take comfort that she is likely very happy to be out of her broken and painful body and is now with her love, her husband, my grandpa.
we should all be so lucky as to have such a full, love-filled life as my grandma's, as well as such a quiet dignified death.
raise your glass to Pansy and hug your (or any) grandma ...