So What's the Story?

So let me start at the the semi-beginning.  As you know my Dad was in Stage 7, he had been sleeping quite a bit for sometime, but would always wake up and eat at least a little something before he decided he had enough and tried to throw the rest in the floor.  J & I had seen him at Christmas and he was still in good spirits and tried to call for our dog when we let her up on the porch (what a sweet moment, he absolutely loved our dog), but we noticed that he had lost more weight and he wasn't eating much.  Of course, being the overprotective daughter that I am, I call my Mom everyday after work to check on her and Dad.  She kept giving me the same report, that Dad was about the same.  Well the beginning of last week, she said that he wasn't eating a lot (even less than before) and sleeping more (even more than before).  By Tuesday afternoon, my Mom & sister could hardly wake him for more that a few minutes at a time, Mom said that he had done this before a couple of months earlier and then snapped back.  By Thursday morning with another report of no eating and still non-responsive, I was concerned to say the least, at lunch I called J and told him to put in vacation time from work so that we could go down Friday morning.  But at around 6:45pm that night, after I came home, packed, ate dinner and started a load of laundry, my sister called to tell me that my Dad was gone.  She and my brother-in-law were there with my Mom when he was called home.  As you can imagine I was in a state of shock, I just started throwing things in my luggage (that was already partially packed) and prayed.  J. packed his clothes, we told our neighbors and asked them to look after the kids and hit the road for a 3 hour drive.  When we got to Mom's everyone had gone home and the funeral home had already been to the house to take Dad.  Of course, I being the stoic, rock-type of person, just hugged my Mom & sister and told them that we would get through this together.  You see I'm the type of person that cries, grieves and yells in private, I don't like to get upset in public or around other people at all, that's just the way God made me, thank goodness since my sister was a big pile of balling snot.   She finally went home and I put Mom to bed and stayed awake to make sure she got her rest.  The next day was hectic needless to say, friends, family and the funeral director were all in and out of the house, Mom, my sister and I went out to the funeral home to pick out all the necessary things.  By the time we got back to Mom's there were probably about 50 fried chickens at our house (by the way, there are only 7 people in our immediate family) I'm telling you that every chicken in the county was slaughtered and fried and brought to our house!  Ok, back on task, we decided to have visitation and graveside services all in one day (only shoot yourself in the foot once!) so I put Mom to bed again and waited until she was asleep before I curled up and passed out.  Saturday was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and it was cool (ok maybe a little cold).  We arrived at the funeral home for visitation about 11am so that we could say goodbye (actually see you later) to my Dad in private, it was quite emotional and yes, stoic me cried, quite a bit actually.  At 12 noon, people started to arrive and they didn't stop until after 2pm, we then piled in the limo and headed out to the cemetery for the graveside service.  At this point many of you might ask why no church service, well my Dad was not a very showy person and just a few words by our preacher at the cemetery was just fine with him when Mom asked years ago (when they bought their plots, before Dad was diagnosed).  The service was beautiful, not too long but great, paying tribute to a wonderful, beautiful, kind man, my Daddy.  After that, we just spent time as a family for the next few days.  Before I close out this post I would like to thank some people who have been with us through this journey, my Mom & Dad's Supper Club, their Sunday School Class and their neighbors and Preacher Ted.  I am so grateful that you have been there for my parents, checking on them daily, bringing cookies, soup, etc.  You guys have been more of a family than I could ever ask for in one lifetime.  My God bless you everyday.

Some of Dad's Flowers

Blessings & Love,

Magnolia