this past week, we attempted to be on vacation down on the mountain with ALL of our kids and grand kids coming at sometime during the week. the 20th was ryker's first birthday and the 27th was siona's third birthday. adam and julie olson and their 3 kids came down with chet and tiff for the first 2 nights. we celebrated ryker's 1st birthday on sunday. we had alot of fun things planned.
siona, jane, kendyl, and ike with the visors they made.
but our plans changed real fast on monday. craig (godwin) came down monday afternoon. on his way down, he got a message from melanie to have don call home a.s.a.p. (not an emergency, but very urgent). we were just getting ready to take the kids on a four wheeler ride, but don left in a hurry and went up on the mountain to the 'phone booth'. he came back in just a few minutes and told me that we had to go home, now! his mom was not doing well and grandpa was asking for don. sooo... we loaded up a few things and siona. (we had taken her with us and george and mel were going to come down later in the week). she was NOT a happy camper! when i put her toothbrush and pillow into her bag, she took them out, saying "gramma, just leave them here and we can come back!"
we got to grandpa and grandma's house about 9:00 p.m., grandma had not eaten much since friday and had been in alot of pain, she hadn't been out of bed since then, either. the hospice doctor had taken her off all of her medications except for her pain pills and ativan. grandpa and some of the boys had given her a blessing by the time we got there. we went into her bedside where she was resting peacefully. don leaned over and told her that she needed to go if she was ready, that she didn't need to worry about grandpa anymore, we would make sure he was taken good care of. we stuck around until about 1:00 a.m. then we came home. tuesday morning, we headed back down to see how grandma was doing. she was resting peacefully, with no change. we stuck around until late afternoon, and still no change. we were told that she could go within hours, weeks or months. don decided that we needed to go back down to fairview and we would call and check in every few hours. valerie (don's sister) had come from idaho and was in talking to grandma. she got a little response, but not much. when we went in to tell her goodbye, siona gave her a kiss on the cheek and said "goodbye grandma, i love you!" grandma instantly opened her eyes, grabbed siona's hand and puckered up her lips so that siona could kiss her. she had done the same with kamryn earlier. our grand kids all had a special place in grandma's heart. anyway, we headed back to fairview. we got to camp about 7:00 p.m. the next morning, we got up and once again, don went out to the 'phone booth' to see how mom was doing. still... no change. so we went over to 'potter's pond' (which is about 1 1/2 hours from our trailer) to take the kids fishing. we had a great time. the weather was great and the scenery was beautiful. don and chet didn't get to fish, because every time they would cast kendyl and siona's poles, they would get a bite and they couldn't keep the girls poles baited and fish too. ryker wasn't feeling to great, but "papa" let him reel in the fish that he finally was able to catch with his pole. (we had to let them all go, because they all were just little planter fish). on our way back to camp (about 6:30p.m.), as we were going over the summit on the skyline, don's voice mail rang. it was melanie telling him to call home a.s.a.p. he called and she told us that grandma had passed away about 3:45 p.m. so once again, we drove back up the mountain to get our things packed to come home. again... siona was NOT happy! she cried when we told her we had to go home again. after grandma passed away, jeff, haley, kamryn and hunter decided to go ahead with their plans to go to fairview. we passed them on our way home. we got to grandpa's about 11:15 p.m. they had taken grandma's body to the mortuary by the time we got there. we made plans to meet the next morning (thursday) at the mortuary. so... thursday morning, we got up and met with the family to go make funeral plans. george, mel and siona left to go back down to fairview. friday morning, we went and picked out flowers and tried to get a few things ready for the funeral, which was to be held the following monday (which was today). then don and i headed back down to fairview for the night.
siona enjoying her birthday 'cupcake'.
1 comment:
you guys need a vacation from your vacation. it was a nice service and i'm glad that we could be there. ruth was a good lady. ginny and i were talking about how long that family has been a part of our lives...practically my whole life! crazy!
and yes, i am glad that you made me unpick...i got a little of the ocd in me about that anyways.:)
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