Grandpa Bob~1933-2010

The last time I saw my grandpa was back in 2006.  He and his wife Linda came to Idaho to visit the girls, Jonathan and I on one of their camping adventures.  They stayed in the Mtn. Home RV park and we took them to seen an F15.  Kylie is just a little over 2 here, and I don't have a photo of Ava with grandpa because, well, back in her younger days, she didn't really like anyone who wasn't me or her daddy.  Juliet wasn't in the picture until 2007.  They never got to meet each other.

I've never watched anyone die.  Watching the last few hours of my grandpas life was not only a spiritual experience (thankfully he knew his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and is in Heaven with Him) but one that made me realize how precious life is and how wonderful both family and friends are in my life

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My mom sent me a text early Thursday morning that grandpa was in the hospital and that he was unconscious and that the docs were running tests to figure out what was going on.  He had fallen the night before and was at the hospital in Carson City.  My mom continued to keep me posted throughout the next 48 hours....with no news yet.

Saturday morning while the kids, Jonathan and I were out running errands, my mom called and said things were not looking good for my grandpa.  She told me what the tests revealed-a Pulmonary Embolism-and that he probably wasn't going to make it. If the family wanted to come see him and say goodbye, they needed to come NOW.  Suddenly, his life was coming to a screeching halt.

We drove home immediately and over the next few hours, we decided to get in the car and all 5 of us drove to Carson City. A few tragic events have happened since Jonathan and I have been together and for one reason or another, I wasn't able to be home for them.  Since we were within driving distance, it was an easy choice.  We left at 3:15pm and got up there around 10:45.  I didn't really know what to think on the drive up.  It was nice having the girls as a distraction, whether it be to stop to use the potty or to change out their movie.  The drive up was quite beautiful and I just started to think more about my Creator.  I let my mom know we had arrived and I'd see her in the morning (she and my dad as well as my Aunt Val and Uncle Tom would be making their way up from San Diego on Sunday morning) but she told me she and my dad were on the road and they had a long night ahead of them.  They got to CC Saturday morning and around lunch time, we all headed to the hospital.  My aunt and uncle were a few hours away.

 Linda's son explained to us in more detail what had happened to my grandpa when we got to the ICU.

My grandpa had back surgery back on January 12th of this year and over the last 3 months, the pain wasn't getting any better, in fact it was worse.  Because of his severe pain, he wasn't getting up and exercising like he should have been.  Linda told us that he would spend his days moving from the bed, to the kitchen table, to his chair in the living room and back to bed.  He developed blood clots in his legs due to being sedentary and the night of Wednesday, July 7th, a blood clot "broke free" when he got up and went into the kitchen and caused a pulmonary embolism.  After he fell, too much damage was done to his brain.  My grandpa had a "do not resuscitate"order and after the family had said their goodbyes, they were going to be taking him off the machines that were life supporting.  He was still breathing on his own, but tests showed that my grandpa was not going to come back.

We left the hospital and went back to the hotel so everyone could rest.  I called my sister (she was back in CA and could not come on such late notice due to school and work) and after talking to her, my dad called and said they were taking grandpa off his machines.  Jonathan stayed at the hotel with the girls as they napped and my dad and I got to the hospital within seconds of each other.  My aunt and uncle arrived a few moments later and it was very hard to watch my aunt say goodbye to her dad.  It was nice seeing my grandpa no longer hooked up to all sorts of tubes and machines and he looked much more peaceful but with every breath I wondered if it would be his last.  The nurse taking care of him, Donna, was super sweet and was very caring towards my grandpa.  She told us that he could die within an hour or even up to a day later.  We hung around for about 2 hours...crying, praying, talking and even joking every now and then.  Everyone kept telling grandpa he needed to "go", but he hung on.  It was getting close to shift change and we were going to be asked to leave while the nurses passed on info to the incoming nurses, so we all left and went to dinner.

We left Monday morning, the 12th, to head back to Vegas.  My grandpa had made it through the night.  He was such a fighter!  My mom went and saw her dad one last time on Monday morning, and after a few more hours of family hanging around him, they left for lunch.  A few moments after everyone was out of the room, my grandpa breathed his last breath.

I've got a few memories of my grandpa that I'll cherish---I can picture the home he used to live in before moving up north and we'd go there for Easter and hunt eggs around his yard.  I remember he gave us Cabbage Patch dolls when we were kids for Christmas.  I remember the fake fire place in his home, as well as the squeaky floor in his bathroom and the wall paper on the wall in the dining room where we ate for holidays.  It was an outdoor scene-very green with trees...like a forest.  He always smelled of cologne-very manly, and I loved it!  When I was learning to drive, they let me drive their white Mazda SUV and I tried starting it when it was already running and it made an awful sound!  When he came to visit us in Idaho, he gave Jonathan a book about John Boyd, a famous US Air Force fighter pilot.  My grandpa was also in the Air Force back in the 50s before my mom and aunt were born.  He went to field training at Lackland AFB in Texas (where Jonathan went too...only 46 years earlier), and was stationed in Fairbanks, AK as well as Great Falls, MT as a crew chief.  He wasn't in for very long-my grandma told me he didn't like being gone for 4 months, then home for 3 or 4, then gone again, etc and my grandma had a hard time getting a job in Montana because she was a military wife and her status in town wasn't permanent so no one would hire her.  He got out of the service after a few years and he and my grandma moved back to southern California where he began his career as a police officer. (Thank you grandma for sharing all this with me).

His life after that wasn't perfect...none of ours are.  However, because of the choices he made, my grandma met my grandpa Bill, my mom met my dad, and my aunt met my uncle and our family is what it is today.  But the best thing is that he came to know Jesus later in life and today he is in Heaven with Him, which according to the scriptures, is where God wants all His children to be someday.  He is where I will be one day too.