Nancy - left front. Bobbie, Susan
Back Deb, Patti, Pat with me behind
Nancy's dad died this morning early. I saw her last night at our neighbor's graduation party - and she told me he wasn't long for the world. Nancy and Jim had trekked to southern Arizona less than 2 weeks ago to get him after he had suffered a couple strokes.
He quickly progressed from the nursing home to hospice - a subject of my blog this week. She said last night that she hoped he didn't linger. And he didn't. I'm glad for the family and sad.
At last night's reception - for Nick Neitzel our neighbor, the hospital administrator's son, we sat with some old friends Kenton and Nancy Groth. Monte Neitzel is Nick's dad - and Tasha is his mom. She sometimes cleans my teeth as she works for Dave Buck our dentist. All very nice folks. Another thing to love about life in Crestonia. The Neitzels moved to Creston around 8 or 9 years ago - kids attended St. Malachy and we've known them as neighbors since then. I was on the Y board with Monte. Nick plans to walk on to the football team at NW Missouri.
The food at the reception was great - barbecue, cheesy potatoes, fancy cupcakes. Yum. We were chatting with a family we know when Groths sat down and we got to catch up with them - they were neighbors at our old house, and their kids babysat ours - all three are married now, and Karissa is pregnant with her third!
Nancy recently lost her mother - who had a stroke a couple years ago and had been in a nursing home for over a year. We talked about the fact that even though her mom had little quality of life at the end and was ready to go, Nancy was very sad by the time she got home after the funeral. Then Nancy and family dropped in - they live next door to Neitzels. She said she wanted her father to "fly away".
But I'm sure she'll have those same feelings now that he's gone. I know I did - with both parents. Both were so sick at the end, I prayed for their demise - which is kind of a sick feeling. You feel like a traitor. But I did not want my father living out his days like Nancy's mother, incontinent in a nursing - behind sad eyes.
But once they were gone. And my sisters had gone home - it was final. I was very sad and felt like an orphan - I still do. I'm jealous of people who still have parents around - except for the fact that they're bound to someday go through the loss.
How the hell did I get to be 52 and all grown up - I'll never know...
He quickly progressed from the nursing home to hospice - a subject of my blog this week. She said last night that she hoped he didn't linger. And he didn't. I'm glad for the family and sad.
At last night's reception - for Nick Neitzel our neighbor, the hospital administrator's son, we sat with some old friends Kenton and Nancy Groth. Monte Neitzel is Nick's dad - and Tasha is his mom. She sometimes cleans my teeth as she works for Dave Buck our dentist. All very nice folks. Another thing to love about life in Crestonia. The Neitzels moved to Creston around 8 or 9 years ago - kids attended St. Malachy and we've known them as neighbors since then. I was on the Y board with Monte. Nick plans to walk on to the football team at NW Missouri.
The food at the reception was great - barbecue, cheesy potatoes, fancy cupcakes. Yum. We were chatting with a family we know when Groths sat down and we got to catch up with them - they were neighbors at our old house, and their kids babysat ours - all three are married now, and Karissa is pregnant with her third!
Nancy recently lost her mother - who had a stroke a couple years ago and had been in a nursing home for over a year. We talked about the fact that even though her mom had little quality of life at the end and was ready to go, Nancy was very sad by the time she got home after the funeral. Then Nancy and family dropped in - they live next door to Neitzels. She said she wanted her father to "fly away".
But I'm sure she'll have those same feelings now that he's gone. I know I did - with both parents. Both were so sick at the end, I prayed for their demise - which is kind of a sick feeling. You feel like a traitor. But I did not want my father living out his days like Nancy's mother, incontinent in a nursing - behind sad eyes.
But once they were gone. And my sisters had gone home - it was final. I was very sad and felt like an orphan - I still do. I'm jealous of people who still have parents around - except for the fact that they're bound to someday go through the loss.
How the hell did I get to be 52 and all grown up - I'll never know...
2 comments:
will you drink from the fountain of youth so that never happens to me?
Cindo and I are going the route of the Kevorkian pill in our sorbet. So when it's time - we'll just check out and you won't have to worry. That's the plan at this point...or Marckyk's could invent some youth fountain!
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