At the end of March, my Uncle Larry died suddenly of an embolism.
Jamie and I were in St. Louis visiting Sarah at the time. D$ called
me around 7am and apparently my sobbing woke them both up, and they thought I
was dreaming. I miss him a lot. I saw him and my Aunt Cynthia quite
regularly so it's weird to not have him around. When I moved to Iowa,
Aunt Cynthia and Uncle Larry always treated me like one of their own and
invited me to Family things with them.
The strangest part was on the way down to St Louis that weekend, I
realized I needed to fire one of my employees. And then when I got back
from the funeral, a different employee gave me 2 weeks notice. So doing
what I thought was a good idea, I gave the girl I was going to fire, a month to
get her act together and give her a letter of recommendation or just leave now
so she would be leaving on her own terms. Well a week later, it became
obvious that as much as she told me she wanted her job, she wasn't doing it. And the she just up and left one day without a goodbye to anyone in the office while I was at lunch! So from the April 12th to June 6th, I worked about 107 hours of overtime.
I was stressed to the max and couldn't see the light and definitely thought
of running out into traffic, but I didn't have the time. . . Finally in
May, I hired someone, so by June. . . life had seemed to calm down.
But then, my Grandpa broke his back. He walked on it for 2
weeks broken before he was no longer able to walk. And then the Friday of
Father's Day weekend, he had spinal surgery to connect his spine back together.
He came out marvelously after a really intense 8 hour surgery to repair
it. He was doing really well and a month after surgery when he was in
rehab, they realized they had nicked his spinal column. He had 2
surgeries in 2 days to add tubes to drain all the fluid and still was a champ.
A week later, he got MRSA. He came out of that really well and even
got to go back to a rehab place. Then he got double pneumonia, his
breathing got way down, and he went into an almost septic shock. They
didn't think he'd make it 12 hours, and he did. He was doing great but a
few weeks later, his body and the antibiotics were working against him and his heart
gave out. I got the chance to say goodbye and hold his hand and kiss him.
He was even able to say "I Love You" to me.
It was a rough summer. So many ups and downs and never
really ever wanting to let him go. A lot of people adored him. . .and miss him still. The saddest part is that the day before my Grandpa's Celebration of Life, my Great Uncle Mike had a stroke. He was doing well too, but then exactly a month later after Grandpa passed, he did too. I have a lot of memories with both of them.
I spent almost every Saturday, going up and having lunch with my Gramps for the past 9 years. I do not regret missing out on times here to spend those times with him. I spent the majority of my summer in the hospital
spending time with him as well. I miss him. Luckily, I had a bunch
of weddings this fall. Plus I had a group of friends who always called me
on Saturdays to make sure I wasn't alone. They'd invite me out to watch
football, just to get me out. I called my Grandpa every Saturday morning
at 7:30am even if I wasn't going up to see him. When life slowed down in
December, I really felt the loneliness and the loss. It was like I lost a
best friend as well as my Grandpa.
In the New Year, I'm really trying to see the big picture and live
in the moment. You really do have to not let the moment pass you by.
I can't even have a catch New Year's Resolution because nothing really
rhymes with fourteen.
Belated Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to one
and all!
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