After we both came inside we started talking about my Papa and how much we miss him. It's been two weeks tonight that he passed away. It was very tough, but hopefully he knew we were there with him while he was taking his last breaths. I've never been in a room when someone passed away, and it's not something I want to make a habit of, but I would do it again for my Papa. Things haven't always been easy with him, especially for the past 4-5 years, when he went to a nursing home. Unfortunately we just could not care for him at home, and he didn't understand that. BUT, for about the past year his attitude changed and we had a lot of good visits with each other. I went to see him almost every single weekend since I moved back to Spartanburg. I also saw him in the hospital this last time and fed him when I happened to be there during a meal. I know he was not in good health, but you still miss people. I just have a lot of emotions right now about him because he has gone to the hospital so many times and bounced back. I didn't quite realize just how sick he was this time until he had been there about 4 days. The doctor told us that if he made it through this time, the things he was dealing with would eventually take him.
Let me tell you a little about how the past year has been for me. Last November, my stepgrandfather passed away. This is Georgia's dad, who I was not extremely close to, but he meant a lot to Georgia's family, so in turn, he meant a lot to me. Also, he reminded me so much of my other Grandfather who died 13 years ago. Both tall, slender, and men of little words. They were always there, but in a quiet way. So, after that, my great Uncle Oscar died in April. He was 88 and died in his sleep on his birthday. He went the way I would love to go, but it was a big shock. Then in July a good family friend of ours died of colon cancer and my great Aunt Ethel died. Wait, not done yet... in August, my great uncle Billy died. So far my Granny had lost two siblings and my Papa one. Now, a lot of you may think, so what, they were your great uncle or aunt. Well, my family is close, especially my Granny's, and they meant a lot to me and the rest of my family.
Well things continued and the Monday before Labor Day my Papa went into the hospital. He had a lot of fluid on his lungs and several other continuing problems he was already dealing with. Things got really bad the next Wednesday and we knew he wasn't going to make it. Wednesday night before he passed was awful, he was agitated, unable to talk to us, and just not doing well. Thursday the doctors and my family determined the best thing to do was make him comfortable so about 7pm we made the move in the hospital to Palliative Care... it is where basically we know the people are dying, and it's an area where they make the patient comfortable and have rooms more suited for families to be in. The people there were wonderful and took such good care of my Papa and us for the next 5 hours. It was tough, sad, heart wrenching, but my family was together through it all.
Since I've jumped all around in this post, I'll end with what my title means. My Dad said he wanted me to know at least one thing and that is "life evolves." He said people will come and go in our lives as we change and move on to different phases. He told me it won't always be easy, but that's ok, it's not supposed to be. We continued to talk for over an hour, just the two of us, about life, death, family, friends, good, bad, etc. I have to say I'm blessed to have a father like I do and family and friends that I have. Even those that I'm not in contact with anymore and those I haven't even met yet. I'm thankful for them all.
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