Saturday, November 22, 2008

First, I want to thank Cissy for the memories she shared in her comments yesterday. I remember Mom telling us about that weekend. She really did enjoy it.

Her granddaughter Gina stayed with her last night. At least one of us are staying with Mom at all times.

Well, Brandi (the cat) came to visit Mom last night. Of course a little nervous at first, but she warmed up fast. You could tell that she wanted to climb all over Mom, but the weight was a little too much for her to handle. Stacey got a few photos of Mom and Brandi together. By the end of the visit the cat had made herself at home on the end of Mom's bed. It was truly a memorable reunion.

The hospitality by the staff at the hospital has been the best. Yesterday they brought in a cart of cookies, tea, and coffee for the family and visitors. Also, the nurse assigned to Mom yesterday morning was not a nurse who routinely worked the oncology unit. When the hospital saw that we were struggling with her inexperience, they promptly replaced her with a nurse who volunteered to be Mom's nurse. They also have a masseuse who comes in every night and offers Mom a massage. The masseuse also offers one to family members in the room when she's done with Mom's.

Mom's pain medicine has been increased to ease her pain as much as possible and to make her comfortable. Unfortunately, this causes her to sleep most of the day. When she is awake, we make the most of the time to let her know we are here and that we love her.

She had a multitude of visitors yesterday. Her visitors yesterday were me, Dodo, Okey, Roxie, Kevin, Margie, David, Gina, Mike, Jaime, Ronnie, Robin, Emily, Dylan, Gabe, Ashley, Byron, Skyler, Erick, and Lacy. The nursing staff have commented on how great it is to see a family as close and as caring as ours. One nurse said, "We don't see that as much as we wish we could."

We spent a lot of time reminiscing about Mom. Her legacy truly was teaching her family the importance of family. The other day she was telling someone that she and her oldest son had celebrated Christmas together for the first 36 years of his life. While we know our time to share future celebrations with Mom physically is coming to an end, we have no doubt that she will always be there spiritually. And it is she who will continue to draw the family together for fun and laughter several times a year.

I think Mom recorded every family get-together with pictures. Mom would grab one or more family members (especially the young ones), hand someone her camera and say, "Here, take a picture." And with all of those pictures, she has created an album for each son and daughter of pictures she believes will be important to them.

Mom and I took many trips together. The one that comes to mind most frequently is our cruise to Alaska. We cruised the inner passage, flew from Anchorage to Prudoe Bay, motorcoached 500 miles from Prudoe Bay to Fairbanks and then flew home. I know we must have taken 150 rolls of film between the two of us. The last night of the cruise was the Captain's dinner. They were serving lobster and we had been looking forward to dressing up this night the entire cruise. This was also the day we hit some very strong waves. The water in the swimming pool on the deck was splashing over the sides. Because of this, I became very seasick. The onboard doctor gave me a shot for the nausea which caused me to sleep and miss the dinner. When I woke up the next morning, I discovered Mom had stayed with me in the cabin and did not attend the dinner.

We reminisced about Mom's driving and how many times the side view mirror on the caddy was replaced or repaired. We talked about the look - you know THE LOOK - she would give us when she did not think something we said or did was funny. We all got THE LOOK, some of us more often than others.

The grandkids have reminisced about the weekends with Grandma Cupcake at Camp August on the Osage River and the mudslide and the tubing and the pontoon boat rides. They say these times are some of the best ones of their childhood.

If you have memories you would like to share about Mom, please enter them in the comment section or email them to me and I will post them for you. We would love to hear them.