Mr. T: She was 98

My great-grandma passed away tonight, she was 98 years old. Her condition had been failing as of late and really took a turn for the worst last Friday. Last Friday she was discovered in her bathroom at the nursing home laying on the floor. She was pretty unresponsive and in the process of falling she broke her left hip. She broke her right hip two years ago and that is when her health started to decline. After she was discovered on the floor she was rushed into emergency surgery to fix the hip. The hip was fixed but the pain wasn't. She probably also suffer a heart attack before falling (maybe the cause of her fall). She stayed in the hospital after her surgery and it is believed that she had another heart attack Sunday sometime.

I went to see her Wednesday and she was laying the bed peacefully sleeping. But my great-grandma was one of the most stubborn people I knew. She wasn't going to give up and didn't give up until tonight. She leaves two sisters, three children (and three children in laws) and many grand children, great grand children, and even a few great grand children. She had two five generation chains.

I am never good at this whole dying thing, I don't think anyone is. I go through two emotions all at the same time and can never decide which one is the right now. I am always happy to see family go (I have had three great grandparents, two grandparents, and a grandpa in law die) because I am blessed with a family who believes in God and knows that this life is only temporary. I am also deeply saddened because I hate seeing people grieve. I understand it is a natural process and everyone does it but I hate to see people hurting (family or not) and so death really kills me.

My two fondest memories of my grandma are (1) when my dad got her to ride on the back of his motorcycle at age 90. She made the paper for this and enjoyed every minute of it. The other memory I have is actually captured in the pictures below. These pictures were taken last November at my great-grandma's nursing home. She never liked living there because she was so independent (she drove her car until they took it from her and sold it -- she was in her 80s when that happen). In some these pictures you will see a fork in my great-grandma's hand. That fork was used to eat her peach cobbler. She had 31 sweet teeth and 1 normal one. When I brought her this peach cobbler the nursing home nurses had complained she was not eating enough. She ate about 3/4 of the tray of peach cobbler that day. And the reason she still had the fork in her hand was because between pictures she would still eat the peach cobbler. We literally had to take it away from her after a while.

I will miss my great-grandma and all the pictures she had displayed around her house. Every time you went to her house there was a new picture on the coffee table and she made sure you knew about it too. I will also miss sweating profusely in her house, she was always cold and even in the summer ran her heater.

You made a huge impact on my life and I hope to take care of my body like you did. You will be missed by the many people who loved you!!!