and things
After the feis tonight I flipped open my cell phone to find a voicemail indication that I hadn't noticed before. Turns out my mom called while I was in the air between Burbank and Sac, and I didn't notice there was a message after we landed.
My great-aunt Emma died unexpectedly last night. She wasn't in the best of health-- she suffered from dementia, and seemed way older than my grandma, who is her older sister. Nonetheless, she wasn't actually ill, and everybody figured she'd be around for at least another year or two. She unexpectedly went into renal failure all of a sudden, though, and passed away fairly peacefully while my mom sat with her at the hospital (after an ER trip earlier in the day.) I can't really say I'm devastated, because she really had been deteriorating for a while, but at the same time I'm surprised, because most of her difficulties were due to the dementia, and were't physical problems. Especially over the past year she'd had occasional trouble remembering who some people were. It came and went-- at another relative's funeral she asked me who I was, and at Christmas she told Lizard it was nice to meet her. Then other times she'd seem much more together. On Christmas she seemed pretty much okay, except for the Lizard thing.
Weird and sad to think of her being gone. It makes me worry for my grandma, because she's one of the very last of that generation on that side of the family, and one of the very last in California. It just seems like now she's really alone, even though she has family and friends and her quilting group, and that makes me sad too.
By the way, universe, I was really hoping this year would be less about the death and dying than last year. This is not a good way to begin. Please desist.
My great-aunt Emma died unexpectedly last night. She wasn't in the best of health-- she suffered from dementia, and seemed way older than my grandma, who is her older sister. Nonetheless, she wasn't actually ill, and everybody figured she'd be around for at least another year or two. She unexpectedly went into renal failure all of a sudden, though, and passed away fairly peacefully while my mom sat with her at the hospital (after an ER trip earlier in the day.) I can't really say I'm devastated, because she really had been deteriorating for a while, but at the same time I'm surprised, because most of her difficulties were due to the dementia, and were't physical problems. Especially over the past year she'd had occasional trouble remembering who some people were. It came and went-- at another relative's funeral she asked me who I was, and at Christmas she told Lizard it was nice to meet her. Then other times she'd seem much more together. On Christmas she seemed pretty much okay, except for the Lizard thing.
Weird and sad to think of her being gone. It makes me worry for my grandma, because she's one of the very last of that generation on that side of the family, and one of the very last in California. It just seems like now she's really alone, even though she has family and friends and her quilting group, and that makes me sad too.
By the way, universe, I was really hoping this year would be less about the death and dying than last year. This is not a good way to begin. Please desist.