It all started at the beginning of November when my grandma had to have emergency surgery on her hernia. They thought it would be too big of a risk to operate on and wouldn't do it for years. Then just recently she began to have complications and they had to do emergency surgery to save her. They were worried about the risk but she came through the surgery with flying colors. Everyone was really impressed. She was a trooper and was out of the hospital pretty fast. We made it to visit her a few days before they let her go home. Just as she was getting into the swing of things from her surgery she began having intense pain again. (This was about a week and a half after she had come home.) They weren't sure what it was and did some tests that night (Friday) and by Sunday she was in surgery again this time for her small intestine. Through some tests they were able to determine that part of it had died. They weren't sure why but knew they had to get the dead part out. We rushed to the hospital that day and got there shortly after the surgery had finished. They had to remove 11 feet of her small intestines. This is the day that I learned you have 15 feet of small intestines inside you. Even after the surgery they weren't sure why it had died and believed it might have been a blood clot. This day my grandma's personality came out as the only thing she could say as they prepped for surgery was, "I think the surgeon got a haircut. He also trimmed his beard." After this intense surgery following another intense surgery they knew it would take some time for her to be able to get up and going again. The week of Thanksgiving they had just barely been able to start trying "solid" food again. (I say "solid" because I don't think they ever made it past soup and jello.) They had hoped that she would have been off her feeding tube and home by that point but she hadn't been able to be. The day after Thanksgiving she woke up in pain again. They were pretty sure it was the rest of her small intestines. She declined to have a CAT scan and said she was done and ready to go. So all of us got called. Brian was at work when I first got the news. He was going to be done in a couple hours so we decided to have him finish up and head down once he was done. I ran to do a couple errands that had to be done that day. We met up and headed to the hospital. (Before Brian got off my sister and I had met up to check something out and had called my grandma to say we loved her and wanted her to not be in pain anymore. It was a hard phone call.) When we got to the hospital a lot of family had been there and some were still there. The staff was trying to be accommodating but I have a BIG family and they finally had to have some of us head to other parts of the hospital to wait for others to get there. They had just moved everyone when Brian and I arrived. We stopped to say hi to some people who were there and then headed upstairs to see my grandma.
She was in pain but still as sharp and witty as ever. Anytime someone stopped to say hi to her she knew exactly who it was.Brian and I got there and it must have been comedian time. We talked to her some then helped her move to get a back rub and all she could say was that isn't rubbing you are just jabbing your fingers in back there. Then she told us we were crazy for being there sooo late. When we told her it was only seven, she looked at us and said only seven, you have to be kidding. I then gave her Brian's and my Christmas card and she looked at it and told us we looked so good in it except we didn't have any little ones in it. Brian made a funny comment back that she might have to do something about that and she responded, "Oh, I will. I might even send you two." Guess we will have to wait to see if that comes true. But it was a great opportunity to be able to go and see her one last time and say good-bye. This was the last time I saw her but my mom went back and said it was a hard day Saturday and that she was finally able to peacefully rest on Sunday until when she finally passed away on Tuesday.
Her funeral was on Saturday. It was so tender and full of loving memories. I learned even more about my grandma and was reminded of things that I had forgotten. One of my favorite things was that my grandparents had been married for 58 years. I knew they had married young and started a family right away but the exact time of how long they had been together had slipped me. It is incredible to see that people can still be together for such a long time. I also learned that my grandma had a prized procession. It is funny because I spent half of my life growing up in the house my grandparents built in Kaysville and never knew that the football I would occasionally see in my grandpa's office was as important as it was. If you want to know exactly what it was you will have to ask Brian because I am unsure how to describe it. I just know it was a BYU autographed football for a Nationals Team.
That is one of my favorite things about funerals is being reminded of the memories. Now I won't be able to think about a few songs and hymns without remembering my grandma. Cereal and my favorite treats will always remind me of her too because she would spoil us by sending home boxes of cereal that my grandpa would get from his job and would always have a jar or two full of different treats for us to enjoy. In fact, every summer her freezer was filled to the brim with Popsicles and ice cream treats for us to enjoy as we ran around her huge backyard. I just can't seem to remember a time that my grandma wasn't watching The Price is Right while I was growing up. I also have a huge love of classic movies, especially Doris Day ones, because of her. My favorite hairstyle is a ponytail and she would always spend five to ten minutes helping me get my thick long hair out of my face by pulling it up into a ponytail. I sure did have a great childhood growing up in her home and riding my bike there with my brothers. Oh the memories.
I hope to be able to always hang on to the memories and hopefully a few things will always trigger them like the way Nutter Butters do for my great-grandma. I love that I got to meet and get to know the people that I have. I know that my grandma is enjoying the reunion she had with her parents, my uncle Mike (her son), and her daughter Shirley who died ten days old.
Although I wish I could have gotten a picture of how big her family is just know that I am surprised at how well she could remember all of our names and birthdays. She never once forgot, not even her great-grandkids. She was a remarkable woman who even spent the last few weeks when she was at home filling out Christmas cards for everyone. Incredible.
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| Her casket and the lovely flowers that were on top. The inside was really pretty too with an embroidered Salt Lake Temple and Daughter of God in blue, her favorite color. |
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| At the graveside after all was done freezing and trying to figure out how we were going to get our car out since people had blocked us in by parking in the middle of the road. |
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| Her favorite team by far was BYU. It was well known that you did not bring up politics or BYU unless you were ready to debate. Although I say her favorite team was BYU she loved sports in general and went out of her way to watch any that she knew Brian was at. I know she watched a few Ute games trying to watch for him, Several Blaze games were watched, and USU was supported and watched. It was one thing I appreciated her doing to show Brian her support. I know it meant a lot to him too. |
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