Alberta Leaves Us

She waited until almost her 93rd birthday and then decided it was time. Here is a photo of her with Lucas and Brett on Mother’s Day this year. After this photo she began refusing food and gradually drank nothing but Boost. She labored a few weeks with not much nutrition and very little hydration. Wednesday day and night she devoted her energy to breathing until her energy was depleted. I was mostly glad that I could stay with her until the end. It is a strange feeling to be without someone in your life who has spent 70 years with you. However her traits live on and I hear her voice often telling me to “stand up straight”. Actually it may be the reason I’m always stooping.

Uncle Ronnie came to spend the weekend with us the following day with the agreement that he would do work around the house if we agreed to feed him. He said something about home cooking but then said he would eat packaged foods also as long as he didn't have to prepare them. He talked us through the weekend which kept things upbeat and positive since he was calmly repairing things at my house as well as at Brett's house. Brett had a new kitchen faucet installed and two new yard lights are now actually lighting up the night. At my house he patched a crack in the fiberglass pool and put a closet door back on track. All these jobs required planning, shopping for materials and much prep time before they could actually be accomplished. I must say he is a very pleasant handyman.

He just phoned to tell me he does have the old Memorial Day photo albums in spite of fact that he denied having them at Memorial Day. He just didn't notice them in the closet. He said the albums would be nice for some people to see. Not him of course as he is not interested in them but someone may be. He helped look through my mom's things and said toss to most all of it. I did put things in the toss box but still more people can claim items before it is tossed.

It is warming up here so summer must be on the way. The pool is filled and running but still a little cold. Lucas is busy riding his bike anyway as he just learned how by himself on Friday. While we were all listening to Ron, Lucas was quietly testing the bike to see if it would balance and it did.

So we are planning a memorial service at the Warden Cemetery on June 26th at 1:00 followed by a luncheon at the Corral Cafe. The service will be short but memorable I'm sure. It will be fun to see how it feels to be in Warden again. Do you think anything has changed?