Grammy Pearl 1908-2008

Early yesterday morning we said good bye to Grammy Pearl as she finally let go of this life and bravely went on to the next one, something she had been wanting to do for a long time. I always knew I would miss her, and I do. I'll miss her even more in the coming weeks, I'm sure.

It was almost three weeks ago on a Monday that she fell and broke her hip. She was always afraid of a fall and said these words so many times: "You never want to fall and break a hip, because that will be the end of you."

She spent four days in the hospital and a social worker that week suggested involving hospice in her care and we jumped at that opportunity. That Friday she was moved to Hospice House. At the time we were hoping to have her evaluated to see if she could stay in her retirement community, but move to assisted living. That wasn't meant to be as her health began to decline. At first she was alert, but somewhat agitated. She was given medication to help relax her and let her rest. After a few days she was responsive, but tired, and would carry on a conversation without opening her eyes. Then she stopped eating and drinking. Over the next days she would spend most of her time asleep and eventually she stopped responding to us. She was one of the toughest people I've ever known, but she just didn't want to live on this Earth anymore.

The wonderful staff at Hospice House took great care of her and we were so relieved when it was decided that she would stay there and we wouldn't need to move her to a foster or nursing home. They are so good at this kind of care and from the moment Grammy arrived they not only cared for her, but for my family too. They helped us say good bye to Grammy and I believe, helped her leave this world with a peace that she hadn't had in a long time. Yesterday we went back to Hospice House to thank the wonderful nurses, doctors, social workers and minister who cared for her and we all agreed that even though we'd just lost Grammy it was still such a warm feeling to walk through their doors. I loved the clean smell of laundry on the hand made quilts and the smell of fresh baked cookies from the kitchen. Libby loved running around the yard out back, playing on the playground and throwing rocks in the creek. They answered so many questions for us and helped us understand the process of dying so it wasn't so scary.

Today we came home. My mom, Julane and Jim and the boys came too for the Duck game. Tonight Jayden and I were hanging out together cleaning up the guest room and I told him I was going to miss Grammy. He said he would too, but he thought today that she'd probably be busy getting a tour of Heaven. I asked how long he thought that tour would take. His response..."a looooong time".

I'm sure her tour was a good one. I bet my grandpa, and uncles Bill and Jack were with her. I think for the first time in a loooong time, she felt nothing but joy. That does my heart good. Still, I'm going to miss her.