This post has taken me 8 years to write. I started to write this post on December 5, of 2010. I had a couple of notes written down, but I just couldn't do it. I tried many times to write it but I just couldn't. I was shuffling through my written notes just some days ago when I found my notes and decided it was time to finish my piece and post it. Below is how it turned out.
Twas 12 years ago this day when grandma Mickey passed from this earthly plane. I still think about her every day. This day of the year I remember well. She had passed some time between midnight of November 30 and the wee hours of the morning December 1, 2006. A heavy snow fell that night bringing heaven closer to the earth and grandma's spirit took flight. The angels came to take her away. Grandma had started asking Joyce two weeks before if she was Betty (her deceased sister) who had been there with her for those weeks before she passed. Four days earlier than grandma's passing Joyce woke up in the morning before I did and she put a pot of coffee on and sat down in the dining room to wait for it to brew. As she sat there a shelf I had hung in the room for her to display her delicate glassware came down on a five foot drop to a hardwood floor and nothing broke or even chipped. She immediately thought of her uncle William being here to let her know he was there to help take her mother away. I put the shelf back on the wall where I had installed it and it had screws into wood so when I put it back I put weight on it and it was still solid on the wall. When I put it there I left the screws out a 1/8 inch so there was a lot to hold the metal clips on the shelf totally secure against the wall. That shelf was still on the wall without incident when we left the house 10 years later.
Grandma had her first stroke in the middle of the night in October 2002 but recovered well. She had more in December 2002 and we moved her from her apartment to our home. Joyce left her job and took care of her mother from December 2002 through December 26 of 2004. She went through two years with very little sleep because grandma kept ringing her assistance call bell all through the nights. On the night of December 25, 2004 the bell went off and Joyce was up and awake nine times between 20 minutes after midnight and 5:45 in the morning to help her mother. I too was wakened and I jotted a note every time the bell rang.
I knew Joyce had been faltering for more than two years with very little sleep night after night and something had to be done, but I also knew she would not quit on her mother. Joyce was beyond total exhaustion and she finally said she had to put her mother in a nursing home on December 26 of 2004. We did so that day and grandma lived there until December 1 of 2006. It was one of the toughest days of both our lives, but Joyce could no longer help her mother and continuing on would have killed Joyce from exhaustion before her mother would pass. The nursing home nurses met with Joyce a week later and asked her how she cared for her mother those two years because they had three shifts of nurses and they had trouble keeping up with grandma. Joyce felt a lot better after that and finally knew she had done the right thing putting her mother in the home.
We got a call from the nursing home about 7 in the morning of December 1, 2006 from the nurse Joyce had seen on her daily visits there. Joyce and I were distraught with the news. It had snowed all night, leaving close to 12 inches of snow on the ground. Joyce said, "we'll get there as soon as we can get out of the driveway." It was 210 feet from our garage to the county farm road and it would take me hours to shovel enough snow to get our car out to the road. The nurse at the home said to stay home; they had already called the undertaker and he was on the way to pick grandma up. It was grandma's wish there be no service, no visitation, just send the ashes to us.
Joyce called our daughter to let her know. She said she wanted to come out and be with us. Joyce told her to stay home because there was nothing she could do and we were coping with the situation. An hour later she and her husband pulled into the driveway and immediately sunk into the snow up the the frame of the car and were stuck. They trudged up to the house and came inside. We visited for a bit and then had to dig their car out enough for them back out to the road to go home. I can't remember how long it was before we could get out to the road. It must have been a few days.
I had hoped for a visit from grandma's ghost of Christmas past on that year's Christmas Eve, but it didn't happen. I am still waiting and hoping that some Christmas Eve I will see her or at least feel her presence, maybe it will happen, maybe not, but I am not giving up hope. Grandma's ashes still reside in our home today. Maybe posting this will bring her spirit on this coming Christmas Eve. It would make me happy to feel her presence here with us once more. Joyce's father passed the day before her birthday in 1967 and she had never felt his presence until she was home and struggling in January of this year 2018 when she felt his hand on her shoulder during the time when she could barely get around in our home. There is always hope that wishes come true.
I thought I was done with this post and ready to send it this morning. Last night at 1 am a potential tornado ripped through our area. We had more of a straight line wind right here. It was fierce with rain coming down in a horizontal line. Our privacy fence was demolished in several places, a large tree branch came down outside our back door. Patrick was in near panic mode, banging on our bedroom door asking where the nearest shelter was. I got up and we were looking out the door watching the storm. It was already too late to make it to a shelter. Joyce (who has not slept through the night for weeks) slept all the way through the storm. I was not scared at all because I could feel grandma Mickey's presence beside me, protecting Joyce, Patrick and me. I had been waiting to see or feel her presence at Christmas for the last 12 years and last night she was here. The storm passed through here just about the time grandma had died 12 years ago.
Copyright Bill Weber 2018 and beyond.
Grandma had her first stroke in the middle of the night in October 2002 but recovered well. She had more in December 2002 and we moved her from her apartment to our home. Joyce left her job and took care of her mother from December 2002 through December 26 of 2004. She went through two years with very little sleep because grandma kept ringing her assistance call bell all through the nights. On the night of December 25, 2004 the bell went off and Joyce was up and awake nine times between 20 minutes after midnight and 5:45 in the morning to help her mother. I too was wakened and I jotted a note every time the bell rang.
I knew Joyce had been faltering for more than two years with very little sleep night after night and something had to be done, but I also knew she would not quit on her mother. Joyce was beyond total exhaustion and she finally said she had to put her mother in a nursing home on December 26 of 2004. We did so that day and grandma lived there until December 1 of 2006. It was one of the toughest days of both our lives, but Joyce could no longer help her mother and continuing on would have killed Joyce from exhaustion before her mother would pass. The nursing home nurses met with Joyce a week later and asked her how she cared for her mother those two years because they had three shifts of nurses and they had trouble keeping up with grandma. Joyce felt a lot better after that and finally knew she had done the right thing putting her mother in the home.
We got a call from the nursing home about 7 in the morning of December 1, 2006 from the nurse Joyce had seen on her daily visits there. Joyce and I were distraught with the news. It had snowed all night, leaving close to 12 inches of snow on the ground. Joyce said, "we'll get there as soon as we can get out of the driveway." It was 210 feet from our garage to the county farm road and it would take me hours to shovel enough snow to get our car out to the road. The nurse at the home said to stay home; they had already called the undertaker and he was on the way to pick grandma up. It was grandma's wish there be no service, no visitation, just send the ashes to us.
Joyce called our daughter to let her know. She said she wanted to come out and be with us. Joyce told her to stay home because there was nothing she could do and we were coping with the situation. An hour later she and her husband pulled into the driveway and immediately sunk into the snow up the the frame of the car and were stuck. They trudged up to the house and came inside. We visited for a bit and then had to dig their car out enough for them back out to the road to go home. I can't remember how long it was before we could get out to the road. It must have been a few days.
I had hoped for a visit from grandma's ghost of Christmas past on that year's Christmas Eve, but it didn't happen. I am still waiting and hoping that some Christmas Eve I will see her or at least feel her presence, maybe it will happen, maybe not, but I am not giving up hope. Grandma's ashes still reside in our home today. Maybe posting this will bring her spirit on this coming Christmas Eve. It would make me happy to feel her presence here with us once more. Joyce's father passed the day before her birthday in 1967 and she had never felt his presence until she was home and struggling in January of this year 2018 when she felt his hand on her shoulder during the time when she could barely get around in our home. There is always hope that wishes come true.
I thought I was done with this post and ready to send it this morning. Last night at 1 am a potential tornado ripped through our area. We had more of a straight line wind right here. It was fierce with rain coming down in a horizontal line. Our privacy fence was demolished in several places, a large tree branch came down outside our back door. Patrick was in near panic mode, banging on our bedroom door asking where the nearest shelter was. I got up and we were looking out the door watching the storm. It was already too late to make it to a shelter. Joyce (who has not slept through the night for weeks) slept all the way through the storm. I was not scared at all because I could feel grandma Mickey's presence beside me, protecting Joyce, Patrick and me. I had been waiting to see or feel her presence at Christmas for the last 12 years and last night she was here. The storm passed through here just about the time grandma had died 12 years ago.
Copyright Bill Weber 2018 and beyond.
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