Grandma I miss you already…

thanks so, so much Eleu; i appreciate it more than you can know

beckie
tdm

got a family email from my uncle this morning —

Mom had fallen a couple of times yesterday (Monday) as well but had not hurt herself. John said she has been a little disoriented for the last couple of days — probably from the dehydration. She apparently had breakfast, but was back in bed when they came for her at 11:30 for lunch and didn’t want anything. John came a half hour later and she was on the floor. Dad

then got this one from dad’s brother, John —

Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2010 20:59:46 -0800 (PST)

I just got home from Kaiser. Mom just finished eating dinner. She had some carrots, peaches and rice. She was pretty hungry since it was the first time she had anything to eat since breakfast.

Her face is pretty beat up. She broke her nose, has minor lacerations around her eyes and looks like she bit her lip. Her nose is broken, her number three vertabrae is cracked and her knee is bruised and swollen. Her arms are quite black and blue but the good news is there are no new cuts on her arms or legs. She has received quite a bit of morphine for her pain today. She will be in a hard neck brace during the day and a soft one at nights so she can sleep.

The reason they admitted her was that her kidneys were only working about 60% and she was quite dehydrated. For the past few days her legs have been very weak and she has not looked or felt very good. She has been slightly disoriented, but not what I would call bad. Over the last 36 hours she has fallen four time due to what I would guess was her weakness in her legs. She thinks she can do something on her own only to get herself in trouble. Once she is down, she can’t get up. It’s very sad.

She will probably be in the hospital for the next couple of days and then probably for the next few weeks in a nursing care. I am only guessing about this based on my discussions with the staff today. I will know more tomorrow.

At this time there is really nothing anyone can do here other that keep her in your prayers. Thanks for all your support

Gran’ma is the kind of person who plants a garden every spring and then cans and preserves it for the winter months. My favorite is her Pomegranate Jelly. She grew roses that always won best in show at county fair. Gram’pa farmed and when it became obvious that their children weren’t going to be able to attend University for lack of funding, gram’ma started selling AVON and from the proceeds she earned all four of her children attended and graduated from University ie. Berkely, Brigham Young University, Perdue and Yale. During WWII. gram’ma was a “Rosie Riviter” plus she wired the electronic harnesses for nearly every aircraft that came out of the Douglas Plant. She is our first generation American and proudly tells of being at her mother’s swearing in to become a citizen of the United States of America. Gram’ma has 4 children, 18 grandchildren of which I am the oldest, 53 great-grand children and 7 great, great grandchildren.

Sorry to ramble, it’s just that she is such an extraordinary person even if she were’nt related. I don’t know if I can let her go yet, but I certainly don’t want her to feel like she needs to stay when I know she misses gram’pa very, very much. thanks for listening.

beckie
tdm

thankies, dragonmedly – that helps 🙂

beckie
tdm