WEEK 32 and LIFE

Good morning everyone.  It is Tuesday so I am a bit behind in doing my YOP update.  Most of you know the reason I am late this week and I will talk about that later in this post.  I was going to make two blog posts, (one for projects and one for life) but decided against it.  It will all be in this one post.  It will make it much easier on this sleep deprived knitter, to only type out one blog update.  So let's get started.

My socks are coming along nicely.  The striping in them makes me so very happy.  It reminds me of sunshine and green grass.

I am about ready to hit some other colors after the white section that just started on the left sock.  You can see where I was at last Sunday by the progress keepers.  Yes, I know one is much more advanced than the other.  Blame that on Super Bowl.  I just kept knitting round and round while watching a football game I had no interest in but, was waiting for some good commercials.

There was some dishcloth knitting this week also but, you need to wait until the end of this month to see what I did in that area.

Last Sunday I told you, my brother had possibly suffered a stroke.  This is where my story begins.  On Sunday evening my niece informed me her flight was canceled and she was going to drive 18 hours to go see my brother (her dad).  I talked to my sister- in-law on Monday morning and she was in tears.  The hospital had contacted her and wanted a meeting on Tuesday morning to discuss Palliative care for my brother.  This was a great shock to me as I was getting the impression, from my niece, that things were looking good. 

After informing my family about this new turn of events, my son, that lives in town, told me he was going to go with me to Texas to see my brother.  My husband was quite upset as he was 300 miles away taking care of things with his mother who had suffered a stoke a year ago.  Tuesday afternoon I received a call from my SIL telling me to book my flight immediately as things were very grim for my brother and I needed to be there ASAP.

My son and I flew out Wednesday morning to Dallas Fort Worth.  My son, who lives in Dallas, offered us a car so we didn't need to rent one, and we drove from Dallas to Tyler Texas.  It is just at a two hour drive.  As soon as we got to Tyler, we went to the hospital to see my brother.  Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw.  I knew he was on a ventilator, so that did not bother me.  What was unexpected was the state he was in brain wise.  He was in a semi-catatonic state.  His eyes opened and closed but that was the extent of his movements.  He gave no response to being touched and the only response we got from us talking to him was when my Grand Daughter (on the phone) called him "Gruncle Stan".  Then his eyes went super wide.  So I know he could hear us talking to him.  On the lighter side of things......he had the hiccups the whole time we were there.

I called my niece after leaving the hospital and discovered we were all going to meet at the hospital on Thursday morning and they were going to have the ventilator removed as there was no hope for his brain to recover from the damage done by the stroke.  He had had a clot at the base of his brain which shut off blood supply for quite a while and there was no hope of recovery for him.  What a shock for my son and I.

Thursday morning the family and my brother's best friend, arrived at the hospital and were met by the neurologist who explained in detail what had happened.  She was phenomenal!  Then a chaplain came in and offered prayer for all of us.  Next were the nurses who came and explained what to expect once the tubes were removed.  We left the room during the removal, as we were told it was not normally a pretty site to watch.  We returned to the room and stood around my brother.  Telling him he was loved and it was okay for him to go.  He stayed with us for about 30 minutes and then he was gone.  Very peaceful and without any struggles.  We spent the rest of the day at his house with the family telling tales of him and laughing and crying together.

Friday just happened to be my son's birthday.  He decided he wanted to go to Shreveport Louisiana to do a little gambling for his birthday.  So, off we went.  It was a 2 hour drive and the scenery was fabulous.  We stayed and gambled for several hours and had a marvelous time together.  I won!  He didn't.  Then, off we went, back to our AirBNB in Tyler.  

Saturday we had a nice quiet day for the most part.  Here is what I did for most of the morning, into early afternoon.

Yup, knitting, reading and watching sappy Valentine Day movies on the Hallmark channel.  It was refreshing and a much needed down time.  My son was working on his homework.  He has 8 more weeks of classes and he graduates with his Bachelor's degree and with honors.  So very proud of him.

After he was done with homework, we headed out to the shopping mall as neither of us had brought 'funeral' clothes with us.  We had to buy shoes and an outfit to wear the next day.  We also stopped at a grocery store to pick up food for the next couple of days.  We were getting a bit tired of restaurants by this time.  I cooked up some pork chops and we had mashed potatoes and salad that evening.  It was so nice to just have a home cooked meal.

Sunday, we got up and went to Mass at the Cathedral in Tyler.  Then we headed to the AirBNB to rest up a bit and eat lunch.  We then headed to Longview (an hour away) to my brother's celebration of life service and reception at his church.  It was a lovely service and people there were just wonderful and so kind.

Monday, we got up, cleaned up the AirBNB and headed back to Dallas to spend some time with the other son and Grands.  It was nice to be with them for a few hours.  We had a red eye flight coming home and arrived this morning around 12:30.  It was so nice to sleep in my bed again!

So now you are all caught up on my life.  Hopefully you weren't too bored.  I am thankful for all the well wishes that came last week on my blog.  It is nice to know there were so many of you thinking of me this past week.

Until next time.........................Happy Crafting!!!!