News Good and Bad

Quick update.

My newest member of the family joined us on May 3, 2007. Baby boy is healthy and so is mommy. I've spent 4 weekends in a row with the adorable little peanut. First weekend, I went in to meet him. Second weekend I was taxi service for a mother's day suprise. My little bro had flown into Balmore and I drove him down to D.C. to suprise mom where she was assisting new mother and child. Third weekend I briefly saw baby as I picked up mom to drive her to the airport to go down to Florida to be with dad. Forth weekend I traveled to Ohio with new baby, recovering sister-in-law, dad (big bro) and 3 year old nephew to attend a funeral.

That would be the bad, depending on your viewpoint. Grandma has not been ill, so to speak, but she was recently diagnosed with dementia and was enduring the first steps of loss of independence. Her keys had been prescribed away by the doctor who had sent the required info to the police to make sure she wasn't roaming the highways. Dad had flown in to get her organized in order to move her to assisted living near mom/dad's house so she'd have family nearby. Living down in Florida by herself wasn't an option anymore. While there, dad noticed she was not feeling well and through a series of events landed in a hospital. She spent her week in the hospital reminiscing with dad about old times, sitting in a chair and generally not feeling well but not feeling horrible. She went in Monday. She died the following Sunday morning of respiratory failure. She was 83 years old. She told dad she wasn't afraid to die-- she couldn't wait to see Grandpa John in heaven. Her funeral was yesterday in the town where she was born and where she had a shared tombstone waiting for her with Grandpa John's name on it.

There's a sense of full circle about this. After Grandpa Martin's long journey, it's hard to see this as a bad death. But it wasn't fully expected. I did not get to say goodbye properly. There was no sense of foreboding that was present before my other Grandparent's deaths. The only thing that made it real was the contrast at the viewing between my Grandmother, looking absolutely beautiful in her one nice outfit, and her sister who could pass for a slightly younger twin. At that moment, I missed Grandma unreasonably much. She was a quirky lady who I will miss. She was my crazy grandma.

New baby was also a contrast to the weekend. I've never spent so much time around such a young child. You could see him connecting neurons as he experienced new sensations for the first time. It was incredible.

So it's been a strange and up/down few weeks. In our family death comes in threes-- we've had 2 in three months. I'm hoping that whole "death comes in 3's" thing is just a series of previous coincidences. Goodnight to all.