Gratitude

I think this week's LIME challenge plays off of last week's but I'm not sure since I was away for that entire week. I have something entirely different to be grateful for this week and I'd like to share. As my LIME friends know, I lost my grandma yesterday. She was the strongest woman I have ever know. We all used to joke and say that she was so stubborn that she'd outlive us all and, boy did she ever try. She was 94. Anyway, on to the gratitude part. I went back to So Cal for my family reunion last week knowing going in that it would probably be the last time that I ever saw her. She was diagnosed in the last month or so with end stage cancer. This was not her first diagnosis. I want to say that it was about 3-4 years ago when she was diagnosed with lung cancer. About 2-3 years ago she had a heart attack and a stroke and bounced right back from that and I never really gave the cancer a second thought. Just before we were due to go to the reunion my aunt had taken her to the hospital because she just wasn't doing well. At that time they found that the tumor on her lung had about tripled in size. they wanted to keep her in the hopsital then but she refused. My aunt brought her home and she had a hospice nurse coming in as needed. It was very late when we arrived on August 1st so we only got to say hello. The next morning we had to leave very early for the deep sea fishing trip with another aunt and got back some time in the evening. Grandma was not doing well then and was having a more difficult time by Friday morning. Aunt Barbara had given her her dose of morphine but it was not helping Grandma to breathe any easier as it should have. She called hospice and they told her to give her another half dose and mix in half a lorazapam. Well, that knocked Grandma out for the entire day. Late in the evening she was up and raring to go. She was so mad at Aunt Barbara for putting her to sleep all day when so much family was in town and wanted to see her. We had an amazing visit that night and we laughed because Grandma was herself. Maybe she just needed a good rest? Saturday was more of the same old Grandma. She was able to stay up most of the day and visit with everybody that came to see her. Even her baby sister, Aunt Mildred, was able to make when we were all under the impression that her daughter would not be bringing her. Those 2 days are what I am grateful for this week. I can hang on to those memories for a lifetime instead of sad ones of Grandma on her deathbed. Once everybody went back home Grandma steadily declined and stopped eating, drinking, and speaking. I guess she was just ready. She hung on to attend one last family reunion and went on her terms shortly thereafter. I am thankful for this amazing woman that was my grandma.