06/20/20 Precious moments prior to Grandma's passing


85th Birthday Celebration for Grandpa

The weeks prior to grandma's passing everyone tried to come around and visit as much as possible. We knew her time was short and wanted to spend every moment possible with her before she departed from us. We had been staying away a bit for the past couple of months since the corona virus pandemic started and it was very difficult. At some point she realized she didn't have much time left and instead of asking us to stay away encouraged us to come around more so as not to waste precious time apart.

We were also taking turns helping around the house. We each took a week and during our week we would do whatever needed done. There was yard work, shopping, cleaning, changing bed sheets, laundry. There was so many helping the work always got done pretty easily.


Girls loving on Grandpa - June 12

Grandma has been saying she was going to die for some time now. Last Christmas she knew it would be her last. She kind of set up milestones to try to reach. Her milestones were

1- seeing the babies,

2- dad's birthday,

3-65th wedding anniversary.

June 12

At one point I was over visiting. We would take turns "babysitting" grandma so grandpa could get out for a bit. Andy took Grandpa to lunch and I stayed at the house. I planned to do some projects quietly while she slept. Instead she said she needed to do her taxes. So we jumped right on it. It took awhile because we couldn't find all the paperwork we needed. When we finally finished she smiled and thanked me and then said, oh good, I can die now, I got the taxes done! I teased her back and said I never would have done those for you if I knew you were waiting to get those done to die!!! haha.

So she never got to hold the babies, but she did get to see pictures, facetime and know that they had safely arrived. Dad's birthday was properly celebrated but she was just 9 days from her anniversary.

She was upright almost to the very end. Her mobility started waning last year as she stopped going places -- quit the temple, stopped going to church, quit going to lunch on Friday's, quit going to the store. She quit going to bed at night. She relocated to the sofa. And then to the chair closest to the bathroom. Slowly she lost little pieces of her mobility. But she continued to get up and use the bathroom up until the Friday before she died.

Thursday evening we were over and Andy and Grandpa had gone out again. When they came back she needed to use the bathroom. She got there ok but on the way back to the chair she couldn't get her legs to work and just really struggled being upright. After a few steps she actually fell down to her knees and didn't really seem to be aware that she was struggling. Through much effort and with the help of Laura, Andy, Grandpa, Me and seems like one of the girls...we were able to return her to the sofa. But it was really hard. And at that point Grandpa knew he could never take her to the restroom again.


Dosing up the dreaded medication

They ordered a catheter and late that evening the dr came and put it in. They also ordered a bed for the front room as she was struggling to properly stay in her chair and seemed so uncomfortable. Grandpa didn't get much sleep and early Friday morning called and asked if I could please come help. The timing was perfect and I was able to be there in less than 10 minutes. Grandma was aware enough to know she needed to use the restroom but not aware enough to understand that she didn't need to leave to do it. She kept trying to get up and get out of her chair and we knew that she would be very difficult to right if she fell down.

I was able to sit with her and keep reminding her to stay in her chair while grandpa got ready for the day. At this point she needed round the clock care and we all took shifts to come help grandpa. It was very peaceful and humbling as we watched her slip further and further away from us.

Mercifully she passed away 2 days later on Sunday afternoon. It is the first time I've ever been around when someone has passed away and it was a very spiritual special experience. A release prayer was offered by grandpa as he cried and let her go. Within 2 minutes of the prayer ending she took her last breath and was gone. It seemed like so long while we were going through it and yet it was so short in reality.

I feel very blessed to have been there for her early morning care on Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning. It felt so special to be able to serve and love her as she departed from us.