Lately...

Lots of things have happened in my life since last time I blogged on here. I did move to a new apartment, just down the parking lot from my old one, but much roomier, and with space enough for my washer and dryer. But, the most important thing that's happened recently is that my grandmother went to rest in the arms of Jesus. She was 90 (would have been 91 in November) and had a tiny bit of dementia, but was still as stubborn and hard-working as ever. She had been in an assisted living home in Chattanooga, and near the beginning of July, she started going down hill mentally and becoming more and more confused. Then, a sore on her leg got infected, and when my aunt took her to the emergency room, her blood pressure was 190 over something! Turns out (after further research) the home had run out of her medicines, and hadn't bothered to let us know, so my grandma hadn't had her blood pressure medicine or her Aracet (sp? it's for the dementia/alzheimers) in THREE WEEKS!!!!

So my aunt did what any good daughter would, and took her out of there immediately. She lived at home with my aunt (which is where she'd been before the assisted-living home) for about a month, but she was still really confused, and my aunt had to lock the doors to keep her inside, and it was really sad. Then, one Saturday the door was left unlocked, and my grandma got her clippers and went outside and started clipping weeds in her rose garden. (I should mention that my grandma loved working outside and clipping things more than anyone I know, so this was fun for her...) As she was clipping, she fell and broke her hip. They had to do surgery on Sunday, and the doctor said afterwards that it went really well. The only problem was she didn't ever really wake up from the anesthesia. She was in the hospital from Saturday, August 25th, when she fell, until September 4th. I went down on Thursday, August 30th, when they decided to move her into hospice care. My parents drove all day on Friday the 31st, and got there that night. They said if she'd had just the broken hip, or just the anesthesia trouble, or just the dementia, or just the pneumonia...but she didn't...she had all of them at once, and her body couldn't heal. We stayed at (or near) the hospital until Tuesday the 4th, when she started breathing quieter and quieter, and then, with my aunt, my dad, my mom, and me standing next to her, she stopped breathing and went home to be with Jesus. My siblings drove out on Thursday, and we had her funeral on Friday.

And then I came home to boxes everywhere, and catching up on a week's worth of missed work, and being alone again, and (I'm sorry to say) just not feeling up to trying to blog about it all.

So, at some point I'll get back to normal, though I don't promise that it's now or anytime soon.


This picture was taken about a year ago, when my baby niece was visiting Grandma at the assisted living home.