- Joined
- Jun 5, 2006
- Location
- Edmonton Canada
Yeah I know, quit holding my breath, right? 
Ray's mom is in the hospital right now. She's this tiny thin little person, she has this way of tilting her head when she's talking to you that reminds me of a bird. She's very clever, she does lots of writing - stories and poems and songs, plays solitaire, does the crosswords, plays piano when her hands aren't too bad. She usually full of energy and has a silly sense of humor and giggles like a schoolgirl. She is absolutely without a doubt the sweetest and most caring person I've ever met.
She was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis when she was 18 years old, and was tried on a bunch of different medications that mostly didn't help but caused some liver and kidney damage. Her hands are completely twisted, but she still manages to do practically everything. Her husband (Ray's dad) died when he was in his 30s of hepatitis, leaving her a single mom of 4 kids. She had 2 brothers that helped out when they could, but they survived mostly on welfare. She did a great job raising the kids, later after they'd all grown up and moved out, she remarried, and the second husband passed away several years later and she's lived alone ever since.
Several years ago she found out that she had a particularly aggressive form of bladder cancer. Because of her age (I think she was 89 at the time) they didn't want to do chemo as it would be too hard on her, but they did radiation. She and the family are people of strong faith, they prayed and prayed and when it came time for her last tests, the cancer was gone - with no surgery and no chemo.
About a year ago she started having a lot of 'flare-ups' with her arthritis - along with her hands, it also affects her shoulders and legs, and when she's having one of these, she's almost bedridden. She also ended up having some chest pains and in the hospital they realized that she had pneumonia. The decision was made to sell her house because nobody was comfortable with her living alone anymore - even though she was elderly, up til then she was more than capable of taking care of herself. Her house was surrounded by all these beautiful flowerbeds that she was constantly mucking around in, and she was even shovelling her own walks in the winter up til just recently!
So when she got out of the hospital last time, she went to stay with Ray's sister. The rest of us took care of packing and cleaning up her house - which amazingly sold less than 2 weeks after being listed. She's been doing alright, but never really bounced back from this pneumonia problem and she was down to less than 100 pounds. But she wrote a song and Ray offered to record it, she came over and played the piano and sang her little heart out. Ray burned her some CDs and she sent one to everyone she knows, and she's been getting rave reviews! She's always after Ray to burn her a couple more CDs (because she remembers someone she forgot to send it to) and I tease her that she's handing out her CD to strangers waiting for a bus. Everyone loved her first song so much that she did another one that Ray recorded - and she's working on a couple more. lol, we all think it's the coolest thing.
But last week she had a little stroke....just a small one, she was standing looking out the window and felt a strange numbness in her left arm. It sort of went away but she couldn't hang onto anything with her left hand. Then on Monday morning she had another one and fell in the bathroom, Ray's sister called and we went over there. To make a long story a little less long, we had to call for an ambulance to come and take her to emergency, and she's currently in the stroke ward at the hospital. Her prognosis isn't bad...but it's not good either.
Sigh...so here's the thing, she's 92 years old - 93 next month on her birthday. She's had a long and happy life, she's got a ton of grandkids and 2 great-granddaughters she adores. We should all be so lucky. It's something that we all face sooner or later, and I know all that...but I can't help it, it makes me sad to think of the world without her in it.
I pray that if it's time for her to go, it will be peaceful and easy and fully aware of how much she's loved.
thanks for listening.
Ray's mom is in the hospital right now. She's this tiny thin little person, she has this way of tilting her head when she's talking to you that reminds me of a bird. She's very clever, she does lots of writing - stories and poems and songs, plays solitaire, does the crosswords, plays piano when her hands aren't too bad. She usually full of energy and has a silly sense of humor and giggles like a schoolgirl. She is absolutely without a doubt the sweetest and most caring person I've ever met.
She was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis when she was 18 years old, and was tried on a bunch of different medications that mostly didn't help but caused some liver and kidney damage. Her hands are completely twisted, but she still manages to do practically everything. Her husband (Ray's dad) died when he was in his 30s of hepatitis, leaving her a single mom of 4 kids. She had 2 brothers that helped out when they could, but they survived mostly on welfare. She did a great job raising the kids, later after they'd all grown up and moved out, she remarried, and the second husband passed away several years later and she's lived alone ever since.
Several years ago she found out that she had a particularly aggressive form of bladder cancer. Because of her age (I think she was 89 at the time) they didn't want to do chemo as it would be too hard on her, but they did radiation. She and the family are people of strong faith, they prayed and prayed and when it came time for her last tests, the cancer was gone - with no surgery and no chemo.
About a year ago she started having a lot of 'flare-ups' with her arthritis - along with her hands, it also affects her shoulders and legs, and when she's having one of these, she's almost bedridden. She also ended up having some chest pains and in the hospital they realized that she had pneumonia. The decision was made to sell her house because nobody was comfortable with her living alone anymore - even though she was elderly, up til then she was more than capable of taking care of herself. Her house was surrounded by all these beautiful flowerbeds that she was constantly mucking around in, and she was even shovelling her own walks in the winter up til just recently!
So when she got out of the hospital last time, she went to stay with Ray's sister. The rest of us took care of packing and cleaning up her house - which amazingly sold less than 2 weeks after being listed. She's been doing alright, but never really bounced back from this pneumonia problem and she was down to less than 100 pounds. But she wrote a song and Ray offered to record it, she came over and played the piano and sang her little heart out. Ray burned her some CDs and she sent one to everyone she knows, and she's been getting rave reviews! She's always after Ray to burn her a couple more CDs (because she remembers someone she forgot to send it to) and I tease her that she's handing out her CD to strangers waiting for a bus. Everyone loved her first song so much that she did another one that Ray recorded - and she's working on a couple more. lol, we all think it's the coolest thing.
But last week she had a little stroke....just a small one, she was standing looking out the window and felt a strange numbness in her left arm. It sort of went away but she couldn't hang onto anything with her left hand. Then on Monday morning she had another one and fell in the bathroom, Ray's sister called and we went over there. To make a long story a little less long, we had to call for an ambulance to come and take her to emergency, and she's currently in the stroke ward at the hospital. Her prognosis isn't bad...but it's not good either.
Sigh...so here's the thing, she's 92 years old - 93 next month on her birthday. She's had a long and happy life, she's got a ton of grandkids and 2 great-granddaughters she adores. We should all be so lucky. It's something that we all face sooner or later, and I know all that...but I can't help it, it makes me sad to think of the world without her in it.
I pray that if it's time for her to go, it will be peaceful and easy and fully aware of how much she's loved.
thanks for listening.
