January 10, 2020

For the last several months, my Mom had not been doing well.  I made arrangements to fly out to see her in February, 2020.  In December, 2019, she had surgery for a blocked bile duct and ensuing sepsis.  She made it through the surgery, but it was noted that a tumor was on the pancreas and she was subsequently diagnosed with presumed pancreatic cancer and put on Hospice.  I decided to change my flight and see her in January, so I flew out January 10th.

Janet and her family had previously planned a trip for the same time period so they could see Great Grandma McEntire.  They got some family pictures together.  I went straight from the airport to Powell's home, where I played with Salls' children, then I went to get my hair cut and it was great driving my car again.  Then back to Powells, where we had a birthday celebration for Adam and Janet, who have January birthdays.  Bryson came too, so we had all the children except John and Lani's family there.  We had a wonderful time together!


Playing with Jack and JP at Lise's house

 Powells, Salls, and Cameron and Angela playing games at our home, while JP, Jack, and Juliet are asleep upstairs--Orgills let Janet's family stay there for their visit.

The birthday dinner!

Bryson and I drove to Mom's assisted living apartment and I got this picture of them.  I stayed with Mom at her apartment for a week, but never thought to take a picture of us together, which I'm very sad about.  But this gives you the idea of how much Mom loved having family with her.  Cameron, Janet, Bryson and Lise all visited her during the month of January, and John had a Facetime call with her.

I spent a week with Mom and have written down what happened during that week in another place.  But it was a wonderful week spent together.  We "walked down memory lane", watched TV together, went for outings throughout her building, with her in the wheelchair, listened to Music and the Spoken Word, and enjoyed shared meals together looking out her window, as she loved to do.  It snowed over 12 inches on Monday, so we had a beautiful snow scene to look at.  It was one of the many, great tender mercies-- that I was there to care for Mom during the snowstorm, because the caregivers could not get there.