The week before I went to Destin, we got a call from Fabgrandpa’s younger brother telling us that Nana was in the hospital again. He said her kidneys were shutting down, and that it didn’t look good for her. We drove up to Gainesville, Georgia to the hospital, to visit her.
She told me she was ready to go. She did not want any more blood drawn, no more medications given, no more IV’s. She just wanted to go. We talked about how she didn’t think it would be so hard to die. She said she had always thought that when the time came, all she would have to do would be to just tell her body she was ready to go, but it didn’t work like that. Then she laughed a bit, and said she knew it really wasn’t like that but that she was ready.
I told her that she had lived a long, productive, meaningful life. She had raised four sons who were kind, loving, helpful, and respectful to their wives, and who loved her very much. That she had nothing at all to regret, and that while I would miss her and grieve for her, that she had been in pain and had suffered enough. That it was ok to go.
Fabgrandpa and I told Nana we were going to the cafeteria to get some lunch. She said “I won’t be here when you get back.” But she was. We talked a little more, then the doctor came in and gave her a powerful pain med, and she drifted off to sleep. Arrangements were made to move her back home and into hospice care.
I got the call on Saturday morning from Fabgrandpa while I was in Destin. Nana passed away in her sleep at home Cleveland, Georgia. She was ready.
It was her wish, the same as Poppa, to not have a funeral. She did want to have a viewing at the funeral home, so we went back up to Cleveland on Tuesday. After the viewing, she was cremated per her wishes. Then, on Saturday, September 19, we all gathered at her home in Cleveland for a Celebration of Life. It was the last time that we will make that journey, to their house, to Cleveland, as a family. I am sad that Nana is gone, and sad that that part of us is gone forever.
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