On Tuesday, November 16, 2010 my mother passed away. She had been struggling with multi-system atrophy, a type of Parkinsons disease, for the last few years. Although, the disease didn't directly cause her death, I am sure it contributed to it. This past summer was an extremely difficult one for her. She was in three different hospitals and three different skilled nursing facilities from the end of July through mid-October. She spent the last month of her life at her home, which was a better place for her than any of the facilities but still very difficult. The last time I saw her was at the end of September when she was still in one of the skilled nursing facilities. When we said good bye, she teared up and so did I. It was really difficult because a part of me felt like it might be the last time I would see her and unfortunately I was right.
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| Anna, Mom, Rachel, Sarah, Katie and me at the cabin. |
Mom was always knitting. She always had a knitting project she could take everywhere with her. In the picture above, she is working on something, maybe socks.
Every summer, since I was three my parents vacationed in Eagle Harbor, Michigan. I went with them until I was 18 -- they continued until about three years ago when my mom could no longer do it. In 2004 (I think), I decided I wanted to spend time with my parents so for the past several years I spent a couple of weeks with them in Eagle Harbor. I am now really glad I did. Below are some pictures from the last few years up there ..
. All of my older (non-digital) pictures are in boxes in storage so I don't have anything from when my mom was younger to post; but Katie and Anna have some on their blogs.
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| At the "blue place" - The Eagle Harbor Inn. |
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| Picking blue berries - Kelly and Grandma. |
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| At the rest stop on the other side of the bridge -- St. Ignace. |
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| Wildflowers and leftovers from the tea house in Houghton. |
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| Mom and Dad with Neil and Mary Hodges at the cabin in Eagle Harbor. |
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Anna (sitting) and me and mom getting ready
for dinner at the cabin in Eagle Harbor. | | | |
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Mom and Aunt Ila at Andrew's house (not in Michigan) -
but I wanted a picture of the two sisters. | |
3 comments:
sometimes it's good to blog to help thru things. Sending you hugs and smiles!
Thank you for posting your memories it helped to read them today. I went to church this morning and the service was on heaven and hell. I remembered that mom always said that you make your own heaven or hell here on earth. I hope she realized that hell would be like the pain she was having and decided to meet Jesus.
I am so sorry for the loss of your mother. It's nice you have remembered some of the good times with her here. May you be comforted by the memories of your dear mom.
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