211128 Sentinel Life and Death

What a glorious day for November!

The sun is out and the weather promises to be even better into early December. I have started to receive the hospital and ambulance bills for Joyce’s last day in September. The bills for one day were $30,037.76, thank God for insurance! So far the bill to me is $795, but I feel they may go up from this point, but I have no idea of what they could be before it’s over. Her cremation was over $2100 that came out of pocket already. Life is expensive, but dying is even more expensive.

Living alone is not as bad as I thought it might be, but I do miss Joyce every hour of every day. I am able to continue on and I think I am better able to cope with this than Joyce would have been able if I had passed on before she did. Joyce would have required much more help than I do at this point. I thank God for my kids, Rhett, Annie and Hailey. The burden for them would have been far more had Joyce lived on past me. Of course it is yet to be determined what they will have to do with me living on. The kids were so supportive of me on Joyce’s last day. That I will never forget. We took turns being with Joyce on her last day in intensive care, even though Joyce never knew any of us were there.
This was Joyce holding Hailey when Hialey was an infant.

The most difficult decision I ever had to make was when her neurosurgeon spoke to me and Annie and said that Joyce would not make it. I looked at Annie and she agreed with me it was best to pull the ventilator that was keeping her in a vegetative state. I knew that was the right thing to do, so we said okay. Joyce passed on a few long hours later. Our lives will never be the same without the most wonderful wife, mother, grandmother ever.
This was Joyce holding Annie when Annie was an infant.

This was Joyce and me in my favorite picture of us together long ago in better times. Who could not love a woman like her?