Just a few weeks after the passing of my sister Kayleigh, we learned the news that my Grandaddy (my mom's father) had untreatable cancer that seemed to be spreading rapidly through his body. They gave him about three months to live and put him in hospice care in a nursing home. My mom has been gone from Michigan more than she's been here in the last few months as she has been helping my grandma to deal with all those issues. Well, the three month time frame they gave us came and went well over a month ago, so when my mom called me a couple of weeks ago with bad news I absolutely expected that she was going to tell me that Grandaddy's condition had worsened or that he had even died. But no. It was terrible news about my Grandma and my Uncle Joe. They had been in a car accident and both were flown to Nashville and were in critical condition. Initially they were most worried about my uncle's condition since his injuries were more serious, but soon my grandmother started having issues with her blood pressure and seizures (she has epilepsy) and so they weren't sure if she would pull through after all. Finally she seemed to make some improvement and they had actually moved her to a different room. Mom and my sister Susannah were able to spend a good day visiting with her. But shortly after they gave her an epidural to help with the awful pain she was in, Grandma's blood pressure dropped really low and they couldn't get it back up again. They think that what happened was that once her pain was gone, she didn't have that adreniline helping to pump her heart so that when she actually was able to relax, so did everything else. Mom and Susannah were asked to come in to be with her and they held her hands and talked to her as she slipped from this life.
Grandma's name was Mildred Jean King Bloodworth and she was the sweetest lady you can imagine. She was so tiny (picture under 5 feet and about 90 pounds) that as kids Alison and I always felt enormous next to her. She was always calm and happy and I never, ever heard her raise her voice in anger in all the time I knew her. She and Grandaddy were so cute together. I loved when we would visit and she'd actually flirt with him a little bit and he would get all embarassed and huffy at her but you could also tell that he was pleased too and I always wondered what they were like when their house wasn't crawling with family. Grandma was devoted to her Baptist church and especially loved her Sunday School class. When we went through some of her things I realized that the only books she had in the house were either Bibles or devotional type books. I think she was a deeply spiritual person and I know in my last phone conversation with her she told me how much she loved it that Spencer was praying for Grandaddy every day.
We always loved going to visit them every year. One of my clearest memories is of Grandma giving me a notepad when I was about 6 or 7 years old so that I could draw pictures and when I was getting frustrated at not being able to draw a house the way I wanted to, she sat down with me and showed me how to draw a house so that it looked almost 3 dimensional. I was so excited to show off that new skill to my friends back home who were still drawing a square with a triangle on the top for their houses! I also loved when she would walk "uptown" to the store with us and we always got to put a quarter in the machine that housed a chicken with a bunch of toy-filled plastic eggs. When we put our quarter in, the chicken would cluck and turn in cirles and then "lay" and egg for us. When I got older, Grandma would always find things in her closet that she wanted to give me. I remember taking some of her dresses and shoes to be nice but of course, there is a world of style difference between a 60 year old grandma and her 15 year old granddaughter. I do remember a pair of gray shoes she gave me once that I adored though and I wore them completely out. I didn't know it until just recently but Grandma used to work at a shoe store and so she always had the latest styles in shoes. When we went through her closet we found boxes and boxes of those same shoes! And of course now that I found some that are back in style, my big old foot refused to squeeze into any of them.
I looked through our pictures to see if I could find a picture of Grandma to share but I didn't have a single one of just her. She and Grandaddy were always together, so naturally all their photos are of them together. They are such a sweet couple and I am thankful that they won't be separated for very long.
We were all able to travel down to Kentucky for the funeral. Taylor didn't come since he was at scout camp and we had already paid the fees for that so there wasn't anything that was going to keep him from that camp! It takes about 8 hours to drive to Kentucky and with the other four kids and Timothy in our crowded car, it seemed like the longest drive ever! But the kids actually handled it quite well. (Timothy too). Kaya gets mad now everytime we put her in the car seat though!
We arrived Sunday night in time to go to the church of one of my mom's friends where they were doing fireworks. We were so close to them that every time one went off, I felt the urge to dive to the ground and cover my head. The kids loved it though and Spencer was proud of his little collection of debris that he caught.
Monday was the day of the visitation and the funeral. LONG DAY. We had to be at the funeral home at 9:30 a.m. and the funeral wasn't until 2:00 p.m. Luckily they had a lounge with a TV in it where I was able to deposit the kids for most of the time. They would have been impossible if they'd had to be in the chapel for that entire time.
Grandaddy was able to come from the nursing home. I think it was harder for me to see him than it was actually being at my Grandma's funeral. This is a man who was always a doer. He was always working or busy and on the go. So now to see him so frail and in a wheel chair was really hard. Even harder was watching him with Grandma. Every once in awhile, he'd take a break from visiting with friends and wheel himself over to her casket. I had to swallow the giant lump in my throat every time he did that.
The service was nice. They had the two pastors of her church speak. I've been to non-LDS funerals before that have been so depressing and sad, so I was a little worried about this one. But it was very much a celebration of a remarkable life and was very uplifting and hopeful, so that was very good. Then as soon as the service ended, Grandaddy took off up to the casket again for one final goodbye and I and many others fell to pieces right about then. So heartbreaking.
Then we drove back to Adairville to the cemetary. One pastor shared a scripture and then Kalen dedicated the grave in a beautiful prayer.
Some of the women from the Baptist church put together a luncheon at the church for us with more food than we could possibly eat. It was wonderful and so sweet of them to do.
Grandaddy was spent after that and so they finally took him back to the nursing home where he got right into bed and slept. Even under such sad circumstances, I am so glad we were able to see him. And have him see some of his great grandkids again.
Here we all are at the funeral. I was glad that Jonathan, Nathan, and Samuel made the trip out too.
A couple of years ago, they came up for a visit and Spencer immediately connected with Grandaddy. I've actually never seen anything quite like it. I worried that this time since Spencer is older and Grandaddy is so much frailer that Spencer would be too shy. But he went right to him and he was actually the one that wanted to sit on Grandaddy's lap for a picture.
On Tuesday, I went with Mom, Timothy, and Susannah over to Nashville to see Joe. He was still in pretty bad shape and still needing the respirator to help his breathing. He was still pretty sedated but he did wake up for a minute while I was there. I don't think he knew me at first but I could tell after a few seconds that he got it. Of course he couldn't talk with the tube in his throat. The doctors say that his internal injuries are healing nicely now but they were most worried about this pnueumonia that he has. Today though, I found out from my mom that he's even doing better with that and that if it continues to respond, they'll move him over to a rehabilitation center that's in the same building where Grandaddy is on Monday. He's able to talk now too, so my mom said that was really nice.
On Tuesday afternoon we enjoyed taking the kids down to the little playground down the street from the house where we used to play every chance we got as kids. As simple as it is, I think our kids loved it just as much as we used to.
We also went for a drive before dinner that night out to an old cemetary with a replica of an old meeting house where apparently there was a pretty big religous revival back in the early 1800's. It was pretty fascinating actually. I guess up until then, the area was home to some pretty big criminals including thieves and murderers. After that, religion caught on and has stuck in a big way.
Some of these tombstones were hundreds of years old--we're talking 1700's.
Spencer recognized his name on one of the stones.
The original building was destroyed years ago and then was rebuilt in the 1950's. Then that one was destroyed by fire so this one was rebuilt in the 1990's. It was still pretty interesting though.
I'm glad our chairs at church are more comfy than these!
We thought Nathan looked the part of the old-time preacher with his long hair and beard.
Grandma's name was Mildred Jean King Bloodworth and she was the sweetest lady you can imagine. She was so tiny (picture under 5 feet and about 90 pounds) that as kids Alison and I always felt enormous next to her. She was always calm and happy and I never, ever heard her raise her voice in anger in all the time I knew her. She and Grandaddy were so cute together. I loved when we would visit and she'd actually flirt with him a little bit and he would get all embarassed and huffy at her but you could also tell that he was pleased too and I always wondered what they were like when their house wasn't crawling with family. Grandma was devoted to her Baptist church and especially loved her Sunday School class. When we went through some of her things I realized that the only books she had in the house were either Bibles or devotional type books. I think she was a deeply spiritual person and I know in my last phone conversation with her she told me how much she loved it that Spencer was praying for Grandaddy every day.
We always loved going to visit them every year. One of my clearest memories is of Grandma giving me a notepad when I was about 6 or 7 years old so that I could draw pictures and when I was getting frustrated at not being able to draw a house the way I wanted to, she sat down with me and showed me how to draw a house so that it looked almost 3 dimensional. I was so excited to show off that new skill to my friends back home who were still drawing a square with a triangle on the top for their houses! I also loved when she would walk "uptown" to the store with us and we always got to put a quarter in the machine that housed a chicken with a bunch of toy-filled plastic eggs. When we put our quarter in, the chicken would cluck and turn in cirles and then "lay" and egg for us. When I got older, Grandma would always find things in her closet that she wanted to give me. I remember taking some of her dresses and shoes to be nice but of course, there is a world of style difference between a 60 year old grandma and her 15 year old granddaughter. I do remember a pair of gray shoes she gave me once that I adored though and I wore them completely out. I didn't know it until just recently but Grandma used to work at a shoe store and so she always had the latest styles in shoes. When we went through her closet we found boxes and boxes of those same shoes! And of course now that I found some that are back in style, my big old foot refused to squeeze into any of them.
I looked through our pictures to see if I could find a picture of Grandma to share but I didn't have a single one of just her. She and Grandaddy were always together, so naturally all their photos are of them together. They are such a sweet couple and I am thankful that they won't be separated for very long.
We were all able to travel down to Kentucky for the funeral. Taylor didn't come since he was at scout camp and we had already paid the fees for that so there wasn't anything that was going to keep him from that camp! It takes about 8 hours to drive to Kentucky and with the other four kids and Timothy in our crowded car, it seemed like the longest drive ever! But the kids actually handled it quite well. (Timothy too). Kaya gets mad now everytime we put her in the car seat though!We arrived Sunday night in time to go to the church of one of my mom's friends where they were doing fireworks. We were so close to them that every time one went off, I felt the urge to dive to the ground and cover my head. The kids loved it though and Spencer was proud of his little collection of debris that he caught.
Monday was the day of the visitation and the funeral. LONG DAY. We had to be at the funeral home at 9:30 a.m. and the funeral wasn't until 2:00 p.m. Luckily they had a lounge with a TV in it where I was able to deposit the kids for most of the time. They would have been impossible if they'd had to be in the chapel for that entire time.
Grandaddy was able to come from the nursing home. I think it was harder for me to see him than it was actually being at my Grandma's funeral. This is a man who was always a doer. He was always working or busy and on the go. So now to see him so frail and in a wheel chair was really hard. Even harder was watching him with Grandma. Every once in awhile, he'd take a break from visiting with friends and wheel himself over to her casket. I had to swallow the giant lump in my throat every time he did that.
The service was nice. They had the two pastors of her church speak. I've been to non-LDS funerals before that have been so depressing and sad, so I was a little worried about this one. But it was very much a celebration of a remarkable life and was very uplifting and hopeful, so that was very good. Then as soon as the service ended, Grandaddy took off up to the casket again for one final goodbye and I and many others fell to pieces right about then. So heartbreaking.
Then we drove back to Adairville to the cemetary. One pastor shared a scripture and then Kalen dedicated the grave in a beautiful prayer.
Some of the women from the Baptist church put together a luncheon at the church for us with more food than we could possibly eat. It was wonderful and so sweet of them to do.
Grandaddy was spent after that and so they finally took him back to the nursing home where he got right into bed and slept. Even under such sad circumstances, I am so glad we were able to see him. And have him see some of his great grandkids again.
Here we all are at the funeral. I was glad that Jonathan, Nathan, and Samuel made the trip out too.
A couple of years ago, they came up for a visit and Spencer immediately connected with Grandaddy. I've actually never seen anything quite like it. I worried that this time since Spencer is older and Grandaddy is so much frailer that Spencer would be too shy. But he went right to him and he was actually the one that wanted to sit on Grandaddy's lap for a picture.On Tuesday, I went with Mom, Timothy, and Susannah over to Nashville to see Joe. He was still in pretty bad shape and still needing the respirator to help his breathing. He was still pretty sedated but he did wake up for a minute while I was there. I don't think he knew me at first but I could tell after a few seconds that he got it. Of course he couldn't talk with the tube in his throat. The doctors say that his internal injuries are healing nicely now but they were most worried about this pnueumonia that he has. Today though, I found out from my mom that he's even doing better with that and that if it continues to respond, they'll move him over to a rehabilitation center that's in the same building where Grandaddy is on Monday. He's able to talk now too, so my mom said that was really nice.
On Tuesday afternoon we enjoyed taking the kids down to the little playground down the street from the house where we used to play every chance we got as kids. As simple as it is, I think our kids loved it just as much as we used to.
We also went for a drive before dinner that night out to an old cemetary with a replica of an old meeting house where apparently there was a pretty big religous revival back in the early 1800's. It was pretty fascinating actually. I guess up until then, the area was home to some pretty big criminals including thieves and murderers. After that, religion caught on and has stuck in a big way.
Some of these tombstones were hundreds of years old--we're talking 1700's.
Spencer recognized his name on one of the stones.
The original building was destroyed years ago and then was rebuilt in the 1950's. Then that one was destroyed by fire so this one was rebuilt in the 1990's. It was still pretty interesting though.
I'm glad our chairs at church are more comfy than these!
We thought Nathan looked the part of the old-time preacher with his long hair and beard.
After our visit to the cemetary, Grandaddy wanted us to come over so he could take us out to dinner. We drove him over to Shoney's for steak night. It was a nice dinner and really nice to spend one last evening with Grandaddy.
Here is the reason that we feel compelled to tip extra everytime we eat out. What a mess!
We had a pretty yummy dinner. Incidentally it was Ashley's birthday and mine and Kalen's anniversary so we were treated to a really decadent dessert. It wasn't quite the way Kalen and I had planned to celebrate 15 years together (we were actually thinking something big like Niagra Falls), but that's okay. We still had a nice celebration. (I love you Kalen! Thanks for an amazing decade and a half.)
Once again, I am just so glad that Kaya and Grandaddy were able to meet. I know Grandma would have loved her and I wish the visit had been under different circumstances.
Here is the reason that we feel compelled to tip extra everytime we eat out. What a mess!
We had a pretty yummy dinner. Incidentally it was Ashley's birthday and mine and Kalen's anniversary so we were treated to a really decadent dessert. It wasn't quite the way Kalen and I had planned to celebrate 15 years together (we were actually thinking something big like Niagra Falls), but that's okay. We still had a nice celebration. (I love you Kalen! Thanks for an amazing decade and a half.) 
Once again, I am just so glad that Kaya and Grandaddy were able to meet. I know Grandma would have loved her and I wish the visit had been under different circumstances.
After dropping Grandaddy back at the nursing home and bidding him farewell, we went back to Adairville. We had a late but fun night playing Phase 10 before hitting the sack at about 1:30 in the morning. We got up a few hours later and had a the traditional breakfast that Grandaddy used to make for us every morning when we visited: sausage, bacon, eggs and flaky layered biscuits with orange juice. YUM! I could feel my arteries clogging every time I swallowed. We spent the morning going through more of Grandma's things and taking a few mementoes. (Lynnsey got a jewelry box full of some great costume jewelry and she made sure to split her treasure into a second box for her cousins Isabel and Cecily). Then all to soon it was time to pack up and head back home. Jonathan and crew followed us up so that he could do some things on his house in his remaining days off. Mom, Susannah and Ashley all stayed behind to continue getting things in order on that end and making sure that Joe gets situated comfortably. This sure wasn't the way I had planned my summer but it did end up being a nice trip. I'm glad we were able to go.
3 comments:
Oh, I wish we could have come, too! Thanks for the walk down memory lane! I had forgotten all about the chicken laying the eggs (I just remember all the cookies we used to coerce Grandaddy into buying for us)! At least you fit into Grandma's shoes and dresses at some point in your life. I was always way too big, both in foot and in waistline!
Also...our old playground!!!! How fun! I'll bet it was awesome being in their house and walking past Mammy's little apartment and everything. It's been way too long.
The funeral sounded nice. I got teary just reading about it. Poor Grandaddy! I, too, feel very glad that they won't be separated for long.
I hope Joe really does get well, soon. I got your phone message about his heart stopping so that is scary. Poor mom!
I honestly want to leave a comment but don't know what to say. Sorry.
I'm sorry to hear about your Grandma. I knew Susanna was going out there, but I had hoped for a different ending. I am glad you had such a good experience, though.
By the way, did Holly call you? I gave her the number I have, hoping that it still reaches you. I should call you more often.
Post a Comment