Arizona ... 98 years and counting in Looking for OpenDiarists

98 Years and counting
Posted on October 13, 2014 on Tehachap.Wordpress.com by tehachap
It’s been three weeks since I’ve posted here. A lot has happened in that period of time. My in-laws flew to Arizona for the winter. Less than 48 hours after their arrival, my father-in-law admitted that he had had an infection in his kidney and he felt he needed to be taken to the emergency room. This was September 14, 2014. By Friday, September 19th, it was obvious that he wasn’t going to bounce back from this as he’d done so many other times over the years. Doctors asked the family if everyone was present that needed to be. This was a clue that many of us missed. A decision was made that coming Monday, Dad would be transferred to a Hospice care facility there in Mesa.

He arrived in the facility at 2:00 p.m. on Monday, September 22, 2014, and passed away peacefully at 1:15 a.m. on September 23, 2014. He was 98 years, 3 months and 4 days. He died on the 8th wedding anniversary of his 3rd marriage; he’d outlived the previous two wives.

My husband and I drove to Arizona several weeks earlier than our planned departure for spending the winter in Arizona, so we got a bit of a taste of Summertime in the Arizona sun. But we didn’t stay long after Dad passed. We left the following Tuesday for Kansas, to put Dad next to his first wife (my husband’s mother) at the Little River Cemetery in Little River, KS.

We stayed there in Kansas for two weeks, visiting with long-time friends and family, and working to get dad’s affairs settled as best we could. We ordered programs, bookmarks, thank you notes and a guest book from the mortuary. The first of three memorial services, held on October 3, 2014 at my brother-in-law and sister-in-law’s church, turned out very nice. My sister-in-law and I created a Memory Board for my father-in-law.

The women of the church held a lunch for everyone after the service.

We returned to Arizona on October 7th, and began to get things unpacked and our forwarded mail sorted out.

There’s going to be two more services for dad, one in Iowa and one here in Arizona next year. He deserves the best in send-off’s; he was a good man and he lived a good, long life.

Other sad news is the situation with my eldest sister, Barbara, who has advanced Parkinson’s disease. My nephew called last week to let me know that he’d been trying to reach us for the past week, to let us know that his mom had had a mild stroke. Doctors recommended Hospice care and he agreed. His dad passed away in August, and I thought perhaps Barb would be with us for a good while longer. It’s not to be… but I know she hasn’t been happy for a long time–she’d always been very active, and it was emotionally hard for her to accept her increasing physical and mental limitations.

I hope this is the end of sadness for a time. I’m at peace with the loss of my father-in-law; I had the chance to tell him I loved him, and I’ve told my sister that many, many times. She knows I care.

Always live your life with no regrets; be safe, be well and please be happy. Be sure to tell those you love that you love them.