Personal

There was quite bit of fog this morning as I crossed over the Peace River into Punta Gorda for a stop at the funeral home to pick up death certificates for my aunt.  She was cremated last Thursday and taken to the cemetery yesterday.  I tried to go by there this afternoon, but they’ve closed the road for construction.  I wasn’t sure exactly how to detour my way there so I came back to the hotel and looked it up online.  I’ll go by there in the morning before I leave town.

I spent about 5 hours going through her things once I got to her apartment.  I wasn’t looking forward to this chore, but it had to be done.  I had figured it would take a couple of hours, since we got rid of most of her belongings when she moved there in 2006 from her mobile home.  But I spent more than five hours going through everything.  I put aside several notes and things I found that she had saved.  I’ll post a few of them when I get home.  I’m not even sure where they are now… but boxed up in the trunk of my car.  Some are jokes she saved and some are just lists of things. 
I’m leaving her furniture and some of her clothes that they can share with some of the residents who don’t have much.  The people that run the place where she lived were very good to her and very nice to me. 

I also spent some time taking care of some banking business and trying to track down a safe deposit box.  I thought it was in one bank, but they had no record of it.  So I found it at another bank.  The box was empty.  I couldn’t remember if we had cleaned it out on a previous visit or had left something in it.

Here’s something I found in one of her drawers.

There must have been a dozen hairnets in that little package.  20 cents!  One can only guess how old that is.

It’s sad for all the obvious reasons but also sad for me because I won’t have a reason to come back to this area that I’ve grown to really like.  Certainly not as often as I have in the past.  Bye bye Port Charlotte.  

Hey, I could ride Charlotte down and take her by the place where I adopted her.  I was hoping to do that this year with my buddy Mel.  Dang!

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I got the call at 11:06 this morning that Aunt Iva had passed away about ten minutes earlier.

Earlier in the morning I called and talked with her nurse.   She told me that she was given 2 units of blood overnight and that she seemed “anxious”, but seemed to have settled down a bit, and was “doing OK”.

The doctor that called with the news said she had a lot of things going against her when she got there last night.  He said he thought it was just her time.  I thanked him for the “sometimes thankless” job they do and he really appreciated that.  I thanked the nurses that worked with her also.

I’ve been making all the necessary calls to relatives and friends, her residence manager and the funeral home.  She is to be cremated and didn’t want any kind of service.  I plan to take my family out to Bob Evans, her favorite restaurant sometime in the near future in remembrance of her.

I’m, going to need to go down there in the next week or so.  Her rent is paid up until March 1st.  I’ll need to clean out her apartment and collect her personal belongings.  I’ll probably be driving down this time.  Perhaps next weekend.  So there will be a few light days here on B&P.

Note:  I know there are many people who will just pass by this post, and ones like it, and I understand that, but I also know that some of you genuinely care.  I’ll try not to overload this space with details, but there seems to be an interest about her, so I wanted to share this news.

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When I got home there was a message on my phone.  They had to send her to the hospital about 7 pm tonight..  She had internal bleeding and a fever.  I talked with a doctor about 10:30 pm.  He asked me how aggressive she should be treated.  He could go in with a camera and try to see what was going on but at 95 did we want to do that?  I told him that she wouldn’t want that.  So they’re going to give her blood and see if the internal bleeding will stop on it’s own which it sometimes does.

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I had to leave her today in a very sad state.  She is sure she’s never going back home and is dying, which is what she wants.  I guess it’s just not soon enough.  She told me she fell this morning getting out of bed.  An assistant or nurse (I’m not sure what she is) said she didn’t fall, she just lost her balance.  It’s hard to know what happened, but whatever it was didn’t help her attitude.  She just kept telling me that she loved me and to make sure I tell all the family that she loves them.  Many times when I leave her I wonder if this is the last time I’ll see her.  I’ve never felt that feeling stronger than today.

Yesterday when my brother was there, she was remarkably upbeat.  He was amazed at how good she seemed. I was too.  Anyway, whatever happens I’ll deal with it.

An Aunt Iva story:
She’s alway telling me stories about her life’s adventures.  Wednesday she was talking about having a hysterectomy earlier in her life…when I’m not exactly sure.  I’m assuming she was maybe 30 years old.  Anyway, she said the doctor went in and did the surgery and took out her appendix while he was in there.  She said he said he took out everything except the playground.

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Things look quite a bit better today.  When I got there she was in therapy pedaling a stationary bike.  I talked briefly with her therapist and she said she’s doing “pretty good”.  She may even be close to going back to her apartment.  The problem is she doesn’t understand this.  She thinks she’s never leaving there and is going to die any day and that’s not soon enough.  She has a hearing aid, but it’s been giving her problems… and isn’t working right.  She has a hard time understanding anyone.  I’m going to try to find out where she got it from and see if I can take it in for them to test or fix it. 

I think the biggest problems are her eating abilities and her outlook.   I think once she understands that she may be going home soon that her thinking might improve.   I am concernd about her weight loss.  We need to see if there’s anything we can do about that.

I still haven’t talked to a doctor, but I will try to do that while I’m here.

Thanks for all the kind words and all the thoughts and prayers.  It means a lot to me to know you all care so much.

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