Circle of Life

This last week Michele and I flew up to Port Townsend. My grandmother (maternal) was pretty sick. We were planning to go up there in January for her 91st birthday, but my mom called up last Monday and said she was doing pretty badly.

She's had dementia and been in pain for a few years now and a few weeks ago, her thumb got infected with MRSA. The strong antibiotics they give for that caused her to lose her appetite and she just got too weak to recover well.

Monday they put her on hospice and tried to make her comfortable. We changed our tickets to fly up there Wednesday evening. But, that morning Mom called to say she was doing very poorly so we just went to the airport to catch an earlier flight. I spoke with her during that call and told her how much I loved her and missed her and how I enjoyed staying at the beach with her when I was a young child. I know she heard me, but she just wasn't able to answer.

On our way there, Mom called again to say she had just died. Man, that just makes me sad. We got the first flight there and were up there by mid afternoon. We went straight to the nursing home to say our last goodbye's.

She was lying in her bed looking very tiny, but very relaxed. Her brow was free from wrinkles and pain for the first time in years. I'm sure going to miss her.

It was good to up though. We helped my parents pack up her place, throw away some stuff, donate a bunch and keep the important things. The hardest thing we had to do was to put her old cat to sleep.

Mandy was a stray she picked up fifteen years ago or so; she was already three or four years old. Now, she was blind, deaf and couldn't walk that well. Still sweet, but very confused. My mom brushed her and fed her, and one of the best things I've seen done happened; my mom's friend took the cat to the vet for us. That would've been a whole extra load of grief if my mom had had to do that.

My grandmother will be cremated and her ashes will be put next to her husband's ashes. I never knew my grandfather; he died before I was born. But I do know she sure did miss him.