More on 2011

In my last post, I talked about Brianna getting croup. I felt so bad for that poor little girl, I wished that I could have had it for her.

That following Monday, we were off of work for Martin Luther King's birthday. One of the perks of my job is that I get off alot of the "school" holidays, since I work for a test publishing company. Unfortunately, I spent most of the day suffering from a nasty migraine headache. I tried everything to get it to go away, but nothing would work.

The next morning I woke up and while the headache itself was gone, I still felt really weak and "off". Had it just been myself, I could have easily gotten up and forced myself to work that day. However, I had to get little miss to school, and to be honest, I just didn't feel comfortable driving in the car with her, for fear that I would be in an accident. So, I called in sick.

Later that evening, I received a call from my mom that grandma was in the hospital and it wasn't looking good. Turns out she had pneumonia and had been taken by ambluance earlier that day. When I talked to my mom, she was out of the ER and was in ICU, being pumped full of antibotics. I asked my mom "had she been sick when Dad she her on Sunday" and when he saw her, she was fine, no sickness at all. We decided that it was best not to visit her that night and allow her some time for the medicine to do it's thing. Grandma was a fighter and I knew that if she could, she would work hard to fight this. However, it was up to her and God, and I prayed so hard that night.

Next morning, went to work as usual. Got a call around 9:30 a.m. from my mom and said that Grandma wasn't doing well. She had to wear a C-PAP mask and if she didn't have it on, her breathing would become labored after 30 minutes. I was faced with the hard reality that Grandma probably wouldn't make it through the day. I tried to keep going about my day as best I could.

I went home for lunch to get away from the craziness and try and clear my head. I'm lucky enough to be close to home, so I will do that every once in awhile. Just I was starting to get ready to head back to work, I get a call from my dad, who is calling on his cell phone. I knew right away that this wasn't going to be a good call. He told me that she had asked to stop all medications and treatments, and quite literally, "pull the plug". If I had wanted to see her, now was the time. So, I called my boss and told her what had transpired and that I was headed to the hospital.

When I got there, I immediately went to see Grandma. She was trying to talk, but it was difficult to understand her. Through my tears, I told her that it was okay to go and that we would all be ok. Shortly after 4:00, they stopped the machines and gave her medicine to make her feel comfortable. She was essentially in hospice care. Right around 5:00, she simply stopped breathing and just went to sleep. She was surrounded by her two children, my dad and my aunt, along with my mom and uncle and myself. It truly was one of the most beautiful moments in my life. She was at peace with her decision and she just went to sleep.

She had lived for 93 years and led a wonderful life. More about that later....