Great Aunt Ruth And Hunchie

Unbelievable - I write a post about Hunchie and that she might be dying then throw in a tid bit about Great Aunt Ruth, her birthday and how she lives on and on AND then they BOTH die. And Great Aunt Ruth died first.

What follows is a timeline because frankly I can't think of a better way to tell it.

• 2-5-11 Sister,myself and the children celebrate GAR's birthday with sweets, homemade cards, and GAR's usual grouchiness. She also tells us she thought we had deserted her - totally ignoring the part about how we had been snowed in for 4 days!





I'm  making a fake scared face!





• 2-12-11 Sister called to tell me GAR wasn't feeling well so I headed to the nursing home. When I got there she wanted to go to the hospital.  I called for an ambulance and when it arrived I went and picked up Sister.  We beat them to the hospital.  After she got there and had seen a few doctors we were told she had some pneumonia in her right lung.  They gave her a breathing treatment and she seemed to be doing better.  Everyone knows that ER's can take forever, and you wait and wait and wait.  Sister and I decided to goof around and GAR didn't mind.  We played Gray's Anatomy and took pictures of each other.
• After we had taken the pictures and thought everything was going well a cardiologist came in.  He said she was in congestive heart failure and had suffered a massive heart attack. I want to make it very clear that we never would have taken such pictures had we known it was a grave situation! We were moved to a room with the intention of making her more comfortable and finalizing some decisions about her care. Sister and I took turns staying with her the rest of the evening and then I went to a costume party.  Sister swears that every time someone is possibly dying and we are in charge I go to a party.  I agree dispute this.

• 2-13-11 Afternoon: Again we took turns staying with her so she wouldn't be alone.  I was feeling really sure that she would be moved back to her nursing home on Monday and then she would pass away in about a week or two.  It has been that way for Sister and I.  So during my shift I kept sister updated through pictures.  Like the one of the mini mountain skin tag on GAR's arm.  When they came in to bring GAR a more comfortable mattress I ran down to the gift shop.  I was looking for supplies like magazines and candy.  While shopping my bagged bumped a statue of Jesus and knocked him over and his head broke off.  Sister said she thought it was a sign. And then she laughed her head off because she is totally inappropriate like that. 
• Late Evening:  Sister and I were @ the hospital @ 7pm to spend time with GAR together.  She was awake and could visit with us and she was able to tell us when she needed pain medicine.  I'm pretty sure neither of us thought she would pass away quick.  But she did.  We spent the night holding her hands and talking with her.  She died at 10pm. But not before we had called the nurse at 8:30 to tell her that I thought she had died - I was wrong.  I think it's a pretty easy mistake to make.  So when she did actually pass away Sister and I weren't sure; was she resting peacefully? had she fallen asleep? Sister kept taking the pulse ox reader off GAR's finger and putting it on her own to see if it was working - it was - the reason that it wasn't showing any reading for GAR is because she wasn't alive.  Still this wasn't enough evidence.  Finally I called for the nurse "Hello, may I help you?"  "Um yes I need someone to come to my Great Aunt's room please" "OK, what do you need?" "Um, we need someone to come check and see if she has a heart beat"   Then Sister and I both laughed like crazy because sometimes laughing is all you can do. 

10:30 - Sister and I were left alone with GAR's body (it's what they do). Actually the nurse just said "We are going to give you sometime now."  So there we were, having some time...  And then we started talking about how no one in the whole world ever saw GAR other than Sister and I, our children and the workers at the nursing home.  That led us to realize that if we didn't tell anyone in our family she had died no one would know.  That means we could just keep telling our husbands that we had to go take care of GAR and really we could hangout together, go to the movies, go shopping, just do anything we wanted!!!  And no one would be the wiser.  It's genius I know!!!  We are smart enough to know that we couldn't get away with it forever but at least for a month. 

All this happened on Sunday and then Hunchie died on Friday.  She really held on.  That's officially it for family members other than the immediate ones.  And I have decided not to ever blog about the state of their health in regards to how long they might live - considering GAR and Hunchie's outcomes after the last post. 

As always, thanks for letting me talk!