Final Post

It is with a heavy heart that I share with my readers that Mother Dear passed away last week.

When last I wrote, she had fallen ill and was in the hospital. She went from there to a Rehabilitation Center and Nursing Home. The idea was to get her back up to speed and back to the assisted living facility where she had been. The diagnosis ended up being a bad case of the flu. An illness from which she never fully recovered.

She did make progress over the summer, sometimes eating on her own, sometimes forming sentences ("I have to go to the bathroom"), and pulling herself along in the wheel chair where the nurses placed her in the morning. She would wander the halls and look into all the rooms. When she got to the end, an aide would turn her around and back she'd come to the nurses station.

Up until two weeks ago she was still pretty good all things considered. She had wasted away to skin and bones but was still able to sit up and take notice of the goings on around her.

The staff called on Christmas Eve to let us know she'd taken a turn for the worse. We'd received these types of calls before including that she'd slid down out of her chair and "fell". My brother went up on Monday and sat with her while I was at work.

On Tuesday a.m., he came down to get me, telling me that we needed to get up there because she was going to die based on what he'd seen the previous day. We were going to meet at his house and carpool up since the drive to the nursing home is 45 minutes. By the time I arrived at his house, he'd received the call that she'd died.

We still went up to see her and I was shocked by the sight. It sounds a bit silly but I didn't expect her to look dead. I guess I'm used to seeing dead bodies after the funeral director has restored their looks.

The funeral went exactly as she wanted it. Just immediate family, open casket, and a short service by the rector of the church. She looked great, and we put her in a purple sweater since that was her favorite color. We were at the funeral home for an hour and then followed the hurse to the cemetery. It was 15 degrees and windy, making it very uncomfortable for those that were there. (I had put on thermal underwear so I wasn't as affected!)

She now lies along side my father as they stood at the altar at their wedding.

May she rest in peace.