Archives for October, 2008
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008
Mary-made-a-memory
Just trying to figure out this tag thing…. Miss Melissa tagged me so now I guess I return the favor. I had to go to my 6th photo folder and get the 6th picture to put on my blog. Write what I remember about it and then tag some others….. lets see if I can even get the picture on here. Still new at this ya know!
This photo was taken by my mother-in-law in 2005. We went on a trip to Utah and drove all around in a rented red sports car. This shot was taken as we were returning from Logan and heading into Ogden to go to dinner with my neice, nephew and my aunt. We had a wicked storm go through just after the photo. Lightening was bouncing off the fields. I wonder what she remembers about the trip.
I think I will tag…..
Sariah!
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Tuesday, October 28th, 2008
When my sister, Kathy, died in the summer of 07 it was really a shock. I was home and her number flashed on my caller ID. I didn’t even want to answer the phone. I had thoughts of my daughters up coming wedding and things to plan on my mind and I just didn’t want to spend the next hour talking family history stuff. Usually that is why she would call me. She was always looking into our family history then calling me with her finds. Don’t get me wrong…I loved that… just not right then. I pushed aside the feelings of being too busy and picked up the phone. It was her husband. Long story short- next day I was on a flight and by that night I was sitting by the bedside of my brain dead sister. I still don’t know exactly what she was in the hospital for. Flu or food posioning…something….. but she “crashed” and it took to long to bring her back and the acid built up in her blood and she was dead. Laying in a bed, with her hair combed out and tubes going into her mouth. she wasn’t there. I stayed with her while her family (husband and sons) decided to take her off life support and counted her breaths till she died. It took two days. She died in the early early morning. I had to drive back to the hospital as I had just gone back to where I was staying for some rest. When they called me she was still alive, but she was gone when I got there. Actually, she was gone the day I flew in. I never got to talk with her again. Not about family history, or our kids, or the weather, or which hurt worse her back or my knee….. nothing…. ever again. The one thing that I have wished we had talked about was what she wanted to have happen when she died. Due to the cost of a funeral her husband opted to donate her body to the University of Utah Body Donor Program. Yes, there is really a place where you can donate your body to science. I struggled with this at first, having in mind that of course she would want to have been “sent home” to CT and burried where all our family was burried. But with no money to do that, I guess that the Body Donor Program was her husbands best option. They came to pick her up at the hospital after we had said our goodbyes and she was gone. I don’t know the details of what they do- but I can only hope that some new Doctors somewhere will have a better understanding of his/her job because of my sister. I try to think of it as a noble gift for her to give. But we never talked about it so I don’t know if it was a gift she would have wanted to give. I was just sent a letter letting me know that her “cremains” have been sent to the cemetery that her husband asked them to send them to. In Portland OR. She has never been there and we don’t have family ties there- her husband does. I guess that is important. I am thankful that they let me know that she was finally put to rest and has a marker on her grave. Section L 1767. So, why am I up in the middle of the night blogging about my dead sister? I dont know. I just can sleep and I miss her sometimes. I get angry that her husband “dontated” her body- like a pair of worn out shoes- and sometimes I think of the things they can learn from people like my sister and having her body donated isn’t a bad thing. I wish she was burried closer and I could go lay flowers on her grave. I feel like I can’t honor her when she is burried so far from home. I try not to keep going over things in my mind that I can get no answers to. Asking why did this happen is pointless. She is gone. I guess the letter just made it real- as crazy as that sounds. I actually sat with her while she died and saw her dead body- but it was this letter that made me realize- she really is gone. I just can’t ask why anymore. Would the lessons learned from her donated body really help teach someone how to be a better Doctor? Once again…. can’t answer that one. Just hoping for “yes”……
