Just Us 2011 Well, another year has come and gone and we are still hanging in there. 2011 was a year of some really hard times and a year of reconnecting. Let's start out with mother who turned 79 this August. She is still holding on and we are just taking it a day at a time. She no longer attempts to walk and is completely bed ridden. She will not be sending any cards this year or writing anymore. I will try to answer as many of her cards as I can. Mom's days are filled with us just trying to make her comfortable in her bed. She watches very little TV anymore and she does not get on the phone much either. She loves her tomato onion salads, Pepsi-just sips, her Oreo cookies-maybe just one, and chicken wraps or any wraps for that matter. If it's in a wrap she likes it. We had a couple of visits to the hospital; one in August for her to get some blood that she loses little by little from a polyp that was removed in her colon around 4 years ago. The other time was in April when we had the bad tornadoes and we had no power to run her oxygen. Mom and I have long talks about what is going on in her life and she knows that it is at the end stages but for how long we don't know. Taking care of a parent and making all the decisions can just be overwhelming. Mom has changed so much this year and slowly is becoming a different person, almost child like. Now our care has changed once again. My son Jared and I do the main care for my mom and just pray that we can hang in there and follow this to the end. This is a very hard job and for caregivers it is just unimaginable what you go through. As for me I am 47 this year and still working full time and still spoiling my little Dolly Bell(the dog, but don't tell her). She is 7 this year and loves me unconditionally. She is always glad to see me at the end of a hard work day as I am to see her. In January of this year, my children's granny began her final days with cancer. After long talks with my ex-husband and lots of prayer, I made the decision to bring her to our home to spend her final days surrounded by her grandkids and family. Steve's sister, Patti, and her husband spent many weekends with us getting her settled and feeling at home along with Steve staying around the clock to help. She was able to go off almost all her meds and just be awake for awhile so she could visit with church friends, family and even make phone calls to old friends. Everyone was able to tell her how much they loved her and what she meant to them and how she impacted their lives and on March 8th, 2011, she went home to be with the Lord. My love for Dorothy comes from all the years that she loved my children and was so good to them. There are many things that I loved about Dorothy, too many to mention, but two that I love to share are that she gave me my love for Dove soap! I would watch her wash her hands at the kitchen sink while she was cooking and she would always use Dove soap and it would smell sooo good and look so creamy and wonderful that I just had to start using it and have now for over 25 years! I also took away from Dorothy her wonderful vegetable soup that I still fix to this day and fixed for her while she was in my home. The kids and I are surrounded by many of her things and we love talking about her and all the wonderful memories we have of her. Steve stayed with us after her death and we have just been co-parenting our kids together and just being good friends. Steve is 54 this year and still drives the bus for the city. He put in a garden this summer and we did a lot of grilling out. His sister from Kentucky comes for visits which I love! The family in Alabama comes for lots of visits too. Most of it is good, but as you know some is DRAMA! My sister and brother are here in Alabama and my sister comes for short little visits to see my mom. My brother rarely comes at all. Melodie is 51 this year and my brother is 48. Grace Ann is 25 this year and works full time at First Baptist church as a Pre-k teacher. She is in school at Calhoun Community college and will graduate this spring with an Associate Degree in Science. She wants to teach music. She is singing in the Living Christmas Tree this year and we are all so proud! Grant is 24 this year and he has a new job at Builders Warehouse and a new apartment in Huntsville. He loves to spend his days playing baseball with his pals, fishing, hunting and doing little side jobs for extra money. He works on a lot of cars. He also did a lot of work helping search and rescue during the tornado time this April. Jared who is 20 this year, is not working and is just kind of in limbo helping me with mom. This job in itself is soo hard! He did a fantastic job of also helping me with his granny with all her meals, baths, meds, sugar checks and all! I wonder where he gets that from??? Jeremy is 15 this year and eager to get that permit. We will have to do that on Christmas Break! Jeremy is in the 9Th grade this year. He played his freshman year of football for Bob Jone High School and they were undefeated!! Go Patriots!! Steve and I did not miss a single game! He is an A-B student and loves to hunt and fish. In October, our sweet dog, Susie, who was 13, passed away. She and Jeremy were very close. I called him home from school and the two of us took her to the vet together and we stayed with her to the very end. We held her and kissed her and told her how special she was and what joy she brought to our lives and then we let her go. That was a sad day:( So, this year has had some sad moments and it has also had some good ones. We are blessed although some days we don't show it. Some days we don't feel it but we are. God is good and I would not take on any years without Him and his love for me and my family. I hope that this letter finds all of you hanging in there as well and doing what you can to make it. We are praying for all of you and I really need you to be praying for all of us. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all! The Bradford/Thomas family
No comments:
Post a Comment