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Honoring Mom

8/20/2014

My dear sweet mom passed away yesterday evening. She was truly an amazing woman, and like I said in my last post, the mom everyone wishes they had. My sister posted it on facebook last night and there have already been almost 100 comments - she touched so many lives. I think I am still numb. I drove down to Port Charlotte last night and spent last night and today with my family, so I'm really glad we have each other. My Dad had tons of phone calls today along with people stopping in and just letting him know how much they care - it was really very special. My sister, Christy, and my Aunt Deb and I decided to go out for dinner since my Dad was wanting to watch the news and I think get a little peace and quiet, and we had the nicest time together just being with each other. My friend Holly said she can tell it hasn't hit me yet, and I know she's right, so I'm giving myself permission to ramble here if I want or even talk about something else if I would like.
Speaking of talking about something else - we had something happen earlier in the day yesterday that was really very nostalgic and sweet for us. The whole reason we started this blog was to chronicle our escapades in the RV. Right before we left 4 years ago, a nationally syndicated TV show called Daytime had us on their show to talk to us about our plans. Well last year they contacted us and told us they wanted to do a "Where are they now" segment and wanted us to come back for the show. So we taped a segment last September and then actually forgot about it. Well, it finally aired, of all times, yesterday morning. Here is a link to the show:
http://www.wfla.com/story/26291303/daytime-where-are-they-now-rv-family
I was able to watch this today with my sister and she said how much Mom would have loved that - she had been one of our biggest cheerleaders about our whole RV trip. It seems like a fitting completion to a chapter in our lives. I'm sure I'll post more later, but I think, as Forrest Gump said, that's all I've got to say about that.... for now. Blessings to all!

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My Mom

8/1/2014

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Hmmm – where do I start? Well, Nathan and Nicholas and I went down to Port Charlotte 2 weeks ago today to spend some time with my dad and my sister, and then to go visit my mom in the nursing home. We hung out for a bit at the house, and were getting ready to go visit my mom when we received a call from the nursing home that they had taken her to the emergency room. So my dad and the kids and I went to the hospital and it was honestly a little traumatic. She was in a lot of pain but it took over a ½ hour to get anyone to even look at her, and then they just gave her some pain medication and did very little diagnostically. To make a long story short, they kept her for a few hours, and then Nathan & Nicholas and I needed to go back home so we left and by the time we drove the hour and a half home I called back down to Port Charlotte to find out she was returned to the nursing home! Well that didn’t last very long because she was still in a lot of pain and nothing was done to try to pinpoint it, so back to the emergency room she went the next day where she stayed until this past Saturday. They ran test after test after test after test, but couldn’t determine the cause of her pain. I went down there last week for a couple of days and again, it was very difficult because she was in so much pain and no one could determine the root cause. Well by Saturday she seemed to be better so they transferred her back to the nursing home but to a different floor that was a skilled nursing facility. By Monday she had become so dehydrated they couldn’t even start an IV on her in the normal way and had to call in a specialist to start the IV further up her arm. After more fluids she was perky again and is no longer complaining of pain, but she’s not eating. She’s had very little to eat in the past 2 weeks now, and I think she is having her own hunger strike. She has said several times, “just throw me away” and “I don’t want to be here anymore” and “I just want to go home” so I think, as my Grandma used to say, her ‘get up and go has got up and went’. So today, Nathan, Nicole, Nicholas, myself, and my sweet friend Hollyhead, traveled down to Port Charlotte to kind of say our Good-byes. A couple days ago the doctor said he thinks it will be a couple weeks, more or less, so we really wanted to see her and thankfully it worked out. We had a very nice visit for about 30 minutes and then she got really tired so we left. I had the chance to tell her she was the best mom in the world and I appreciated all the sacrifices she has made throughout her life for me and how much I love her. She really is precious. At this point there seems to be nothing really wrong with her - never did find out what all the pain was about - but she has just lost the will to live, so what can you do about that? She was so sweet today, though, telling all of us how wonderful we are and how beautiful we are, and how much she loves us. She really is the mom that everyone wishes they had. I'm so thankful for her! I'll update more when I know more.

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Tim & Jodie

Tim and Jodie have been married since Nov. 5, 1988. Tim is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and retired city of Tampa Firefighter. Jodie is a happily laid off IBM/AT&T 21 yr veteran employee turned stay-at-home home-schooling mom (say that fast three times!). She works very part-time for a local Christian author and speaker. They have four wonderful children: triplets Nathan, Nicole, and Noah born 11/16/97 and Nicholas born 5/16/99.

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