Grandma – November 17, 1922 – February 1, 2007
Where do I begin? Grandma passed away last Thursday. She had been in the hospital for just about a month with pneumonia.
I still can’t believe that she is gone. I mean it was terribly hard seeing her in the hospital the way she was. She just looked like she was suffering a great deal. I never expected her to go the way she did. I always thought she was going to pass away in her sleep one night. I guess that she did kind of pass away in her sleep in the sense that she was extremely sedated so she wouldn’t suffer when the ventilation tube was removed.
I stayed with her the entire time after it was removed and just sat next to the bed and held her hand. She lasted for about an hour and a half and I still can’t believe that she is gone. I was and still am pretty devastated. I just couldn’t leave her side after she stopped breathing. I just kept holding her hand for about half an hour and I just never wanted to let go. I kept hoping that this wasn’t really happening and that she would start breathing again – come back to life again – get better and I would have been able to take her home with me. But as I’ve learned, things don’t always happen the way you want them to.
I don’t know what is going to happen now. We came back this past Sunday since I thought that the plane might be a little empty since it was Superbowl Sunday and I was right. The funeral is going to be on the 17th and my Mom and I have a lot of preparation to do. My aunt and her husband are coming for about a week and a half to help sort things out here. My cousin Paula is coming with her husband and 3 kids. My cousin Mike is coming with his girlfriend and I think my cousin Jeff is coming too. But, since the house is pretty full, Paula and Mike are both going to stay at hotels. My Aunt and Uncle are staying here at the house and if Jeff comes, he will probably be staying here too.
We have so much cleaning to do – which actually means that I have so much cleaning to do.
I was quite relieved to leave California though. I mean it was nice being able to go to some stores that we don’t have here in Hawaii – like Target – Gosh, I *heart* Target, and it was nice being around so many family members, but, I missed my cat and my computer and just being someplace that I could call home.
The day after Grandma died was pretty rough. I thought I was going to be able to help my Aunt clean out some of my Grandma’s clothes, but it was very difficult.
I made the arrangements to fly back to Hawaii Friday and then we decided to do some female therapy on Saturday by going shopping. I got a new dress for the funeral at Macy’s and I am glad that we went there since I got the dress on clearance for less than half its original price. Mom and I then hit a gigantic Joann’s store and I got a few craft supplies that I don’t think I could get here in Hawaii and a few items that were marked down ridiculously low on clearance. I got one of those automatic measuring tape thingies for 50 cents! Yea!
I am glad that we flew back on Sunday since I was right in my prediction that the plane probably wasn’t going to be full to capacity.
We didn’t get any housework done today, but I did find Grandma’s will which no one was able to find before. I also played a little with my scanner since I am planning on scanning a bunch of photos and making a picture board at the funeral.
So now, I can’t sleep again because I don’t know what is going to happen. Grandma wrote a will so that things wouldn’t be complicated, but things really are because of the way she set it up.
It’s late and I’ve been working on this post for a couple of hours now. Of course I’ve been working on it for a long time because I’ve also been trying to watch a movie completely with subtitles while I write…….
1 Comment February 6, 2007
