the rain in my heart spills down my face
I missed a call from my ex-boyfriend, Jason, last night as I recuperated from heat exhaustion. When I called back today and his cousin answered the phone, I knew immediately that something was wrong.
NeeNee passed away early Sunday morning in her sleep, at the age of 96 years old. Although I didn't meet her when Jason and I dated/lived together in 1997-1998, I finally got to know her in spring 2005 when he and I dated again briefly. It was always a pleasure to visit with her, and sad when she had another stroke and pneumonia summer 2006. She could be funny when she was lucid, but then there were the countless nights when I would hear her cry out in her sleep at 4 am. Even with the caregivers that were there almost round the clock, it was exhausting for Jason as the primary caretaker of his grandmother and the household.
Even though I knew this day would come, it was still a shock to enter the house and see her rented medical bed was already gone. (That's Medicare for you.)
Sad to say, I honestly feel that she showed me more love and affection in the last few years I knew her then I ever received from either of my birth grandmothers.
I'll remember the sweet times when she'd adjust her mirror at the dinner table during lunch so she could see Jason and me sitting on the couch. The times when she would ask me to hold her hand and tell me that she loved me, or her favorite phrase to tease:
"Je vous aimez, je vous adore, quelque plus voulez-vous?" (rough version)
Translation?
"I love you, I adore you, what more do you want?"
NeeNee passed away early Sunday morning in her sleep, at the age of 96 years old. Although I didn't meet her when Jason and I dated/lived together in 1997-1998, I finally got to know her in spring 2005 when he and I dated again briefly. It was always a pleasure to visit with her, and sad when she had another stroke and pneumonia summer 2006. She could be funny when she was lucid, but then there were the countless nights when I would hear her cry out in her sleep at 4 am. Even with the caregivers that were there almost round the clock, it was exhausting for Jason as the primary caretaker of his grandmother and the household.
Even though I knew this day would come, it was still a shock to enter the house and see her rented medical bed was already gone. (That's Medicare for you.)
Sad to say, I honestly feel that she showed me more love and affection in the last few years I knew her then I ever received from either of my birth grandmothers.
I'll remember the sweet times when she'd adjust her mirror at the dinner table during lunch so she could see Jason and me sitting on the couch. The times when she would ask me to hold her hand and tell me that she loved me, or her favorite phrase to tease:
"Je vous aimez, je vous adore, quelque plus voulez-vous?" (rough version)
Translation?
"I love you, I adore you, what more do you want?"