Update . . .

My dad died last Thursday.  It was such a shock.  You may remember that I just made an emergency trip up to Ohio last month when he was hospitalized, but he had been released and seemed to be getting much better and stronger.  

But on Thursday afternoon, they called Wendy to tell her they were doing CPR on him.  She raced over there from her office about 40 minutes away, but before she could get there, they called back to say the CPR hadn't worked.  He had layed down before dinner for a nap and when the nurse came to get him up for dinner 45 minutes or so later, he wasn't breathing.  That's when they called Wendy and she called me to say she was on her way over there from work and they were doing CPR.  My heart just sank -- I was so terrified.  She called back a few minutes later as I was on my way back to the house from work to tell me they had called back and he was gone.  I was in shock, but poor Wen.  After she got there, she just sat there next to him all evening.  She couldn't bring herself to leave him there. 

They were so close.  Her dad and I divorced when she was just an infant and from the time I went back to work when she was 2 weeks old, she stayed with my parents during the day.  Once she started school, she started sleeping over there, too, because they lived only half a block from a really good school.  That way she could attend the good school, and they could walk her to school every day and she never had to ride a bus.  I was an only child of parents who wanted a dozen kids but couldn't have them.  So for them, caring for Wendy wasn't an imposition, but a joy.  So she essentially grew up with three sets of parents, and her Grandpa was her full-time dad until she went to live with her real dad and step-mother when she was about 12 or 13.   By then I had moved to Louisiana.  I planned to get settled, then bring her down there with me, but when it came down to it, I couldn't bring myself to make her leave all the family and friends she'd ever known.  

So from the beginning, she was pretty much the center of her Grandpa's life.  He spent virtually every spare minute with her.  And since he's been sick the last year and a half or so, Wendy spent just about every moment she wasn't working taking care of him.  And even when he was at his sickest, when Wendy would come into the room he would immediately smile and relax.  She loved him so much.  She has just been devastated by this.

I wish I could have visited one more time, but we expected that as a result of his multiple myeloma, he would gradually deteriorate and that it would take a while before the end.  So although this has been really really hard for all of us, ultimately I feel grateful that he didn't have to suffer through that, and that instead he got to go peacefully in his sleep.  But I don't think Wendy will be able to feel that way any time soon.  I talked to her just a little while ago and she was just sitting on a bench at the cemetery.  Poor darling.  I wish I knew what I could do or say to make this easier for her. 

Anyway, the funeral was Monday and we are on our way back to Louisiana from Ohio now.  We're staying overnight outside Memphis.

Thank goodness for Torri.  She stepped in immediately and took over care of the dogs and cats for me.  And she and Al are sharing horse care duties.  I'm so fortunate to know such good people.