I love you. . .

I am trying to catch up on work from today. My mom called to say that Grandpa's kidneys quit working, his heart valve isn't working right, so they were unhooking everything. . .

I went to the hospital ~ not quite sure what to do in this situation. You see, we haven't had to go through this much. We've only lost my dad's dad. By 'we' I mean my family. Chris has had to go through this and he's very sympathetic towards the whole situation.

When I got to the hospital, Grandpa was on a few meds and a CPAP machine. If you don't know what that is, it forces air in while you try to sleep. It's not very comfortable and it reminded me of if you were walking into a very stiff wind, trying to catch your breath. Grandma wanted him to wear it until all my aunts and uncle could make it to Rochester, but Grandpa hated it and would ask about every 10 minutes to "take it off!". I don't ever want to be kept alive for any reason and I now truly understand Chris being adamant about the same thing from when we made our living wills. We would calm Grandpa down every time with the promise that he could take it off in a little while. The poor nurse got all the blame but when my dad would tell him that, he'd say "okay" and try to calm down. It was very difficult to watch, but it was even more unbearable to think of him being alone, so we stayed. Eventually everyone arrived and they could take that damn mask off. . .

My Grandpa

~ lover of homemade ice cream

~ lover of Popsicles

~ biggest hands of anyone I know

~ an even bigger heart

~ only accordion player I know

~ always smiling

~ loved to tell jokes

~ bib overalls

~ loved to garden

~ still building backyard sheds at 82

~ body of a 61 year old at 82

Fuzzy

We will all miss him and his joking nature. The Pastor from their church came today and he had a difficult time reading from his book. Grandpa would stop on his way out from church every Sunday to tell him a joke. The only thing is my Grandpa couldn't hear so well, so most of the church heard the joke to and they weren't always appropriate. . . :'~)

My mom called to say they had decided to leave the hospital for the night. A difficult decision because we didn't want him to be alone even if he didn't know we were there. My husband, being the wonderful man that he is, is now sitting up there with Grandpa. He wanted to put the others' minds at ease so he will go for us. . . I don't think I tell him I love him enough. . .