Mom passed away

My mom passed away last Saturday, the 9th. I was able to spend the week before that with her, and my sister and brothers were also there that whole week. Jeff saw her on both the weekend before she died and this last weekend. She was in an increasing amount of pain all week, and we struggled to keep it under control and yet maintain some sense of order in her daily schedule, which was important to her. On Friday night, she went to a wedding of a friend's son, then after she got home, she collapsed while putting on her pajamas and then she had a seizure. From that point on for about 3 or 4 hours, she was in incredible pain. We got all the kids assembled, as well as two hospice nurses, her best friend, her parents, her pastor and his wife, and another close friend, and we all worked to get the pain under control and to try and calm her with singing and laughing. She actually sang along to some of the praise songs. She eventually fell asleep and stayed asleep through the night while my brother Nathan kept watch. Two of her friends and my grandparents also stayed in the room with her all night. The next day, she was still in pain, and was noticeably weaker. It was obvious that her body was starting to shut down. We got her moved to a hospital bed around lunch time, and she really started to deteriorate after that. We tried to keep her calm and keep her pain under control, and eventually she calmed down and started to sleep lightly. Her breathing slowed and eventually stopped at about 6:15. She was surrounded by friends and family when she passed. It was a sad moment for all of us, but also joyous because we knew she didn't have to suffer any longer. We prayed over her body and called hospice and the funeral home.

Things happened pretty quickly after that. I helped the hospice nurse get rid of all the narcotics left in the house. I can't believe how much we had to throw away - thousands of dollars worth of medication went down the drain. It's really too bad they can't send that stuff to someone else, but I guess they have to keep control of those types of drugs. We did save all the non-narcotic drugs and are planning to donate them to a place that sends them to a clinic in Bolivia. Mom's body was taken away by the funeral home. She has donated it to KU Medical Center for research.

We have scheduled the memorial service for Thursday. Mom had pretty much outlined her wishes for the service with the pastor already, so there wasn't much planning to do. I made a slide show of pictures of her for the reception, but otherwise it was all taken care of for us.

So, that's what been going on. Jeff and I have the entire week off work, which is nice. We've been home for a couple of days, and we'll go back to Hays tomorrow to start cleaning out the house and to go to the memorial service.

It hasn't been as sad to have Mom gone as I thought. I'm sad, but also happy that she's in a better place now. She suffered so much in her life here. I still miss her, but I know we'll be together again someday, so it's more of a "see you later, Mom" than a goodbye.