My Sweet Paw Paw

The week of March 24th was one of the most difficult weeks in my whole life! That Tuesday, March 25th, I found out my Paw Paw (Dad's dad) had passed away.  He had been in the hospital but seemed to be doing better.  It was a shock to all of us...we were not expecting it at all.  Mom had called me about 4 times that morning, before 7:30am. I was still asleep and didn't hear my phone.  Then the doorbell rang. I knew something was up immediately. I went to the door and she was just crying. She told me and I began to bawl my eyes out...uncontrollable, not able to breathe.  Kip was so sweet...he called Bro. Chuck for me and told him that I would not be coming to work and why. I knew I would not have been able to even get a word out of my mouth. If mom hadn't text Kip and told him before coming over, I wouldn't have been able to tell him! It was a rough morning.  Kip left for work and Mom went back home. I just sat in the bath tub and cried.  What made it so hard on me was the night before, Mom called to tell me that Paw Paw had asked about me and when I was going to come see him. (He was in Birmingham at St. Vincents and I just hadn't had a chance to get down there!) Dad told him I would see him when he came home if I didn't see him before, and Paw Paw said, "She better come see me before!" That was Monday. He passed away early Tuesday morning. Talk about a shot to the heart. That is all I could think about that whole week...and still to this day.

I decided to get ready and go to my parents' house and help mom work on cleaning out my old room. (Still haven't completely moved everything out.) We worked on that for a little while then dad came home for a few minutes. We all cried together. I then went home and got ready to go over to my grandmother's house. I went over there about 1:00-1:30ish.  Our family is so loved and it is so awesome! The flowers, food, cards, and company people brought were so thoughtful.  My poor grandmother has dementia/Alzheimer's, so she didn't really know what was going on. She kept asking where her husband was, and we kept having to tell her over and over. We got to re-live her finding out for the first time OVER and OVER and OVER! Talk about waterworks. We would all lose it when we would have to say, "He went to heaven." It was so difficult to watch and re-live over and over again. She kept us laughing, as well though! She is a funny little woman! We love her to death! Because her short term memory is basically non-existent, she would forget 5 minutes later about Paw Paw. One time, she thought it was Christmas because so many people were at the house! I just love that sweet lady!!

Kip came by when he got off work, and we went home. We ended up going back over to eat supper, because we had some much good food! Why cook or go out to eat when we had BBQ, lasagna, mexican casserole, chicken salad, pasta salad, and anything else you can think of over there!

I went to work the next day, but my mind was so far away from the things I needed to be doing that I didn't accomplish much that week.  I worked Thursday too, and then Thursday night was visitation. Wow...the people that came just blew me away. Our family is so loved and blessed...it definitely showed that night. My grandmother stayed home with someone...we didn't want her to have to sit through that. She would have been way too tired after the night was over! So many people sent flowers, including some of my sweet bridesmaids! I still have the flower on my front porch! A few of them even came by the visitation! It was so great to see my sweet friends there! :) Even some of my dad's friends chidhood friends and friends he played softball with came by!

Around 8:00, once everybody had cleared out and it was just family left, we said our final goodbyes. (I am tearing up right now as I write this.) It was rough. Probably the hardest I cried all week. My poor dad was so tore up! (He actually found my Paw Paw in the hospital that morning when he went by before work, so it has been VERY hard on him.)

The funeral was at 10am the next day, then we had the burial after. The weather definitely went well with all our moods and feelings. Dark and gloomy and raining.  That day is really a blur for me...I don't remember much at all about it. I remember going back to the church to eat after the burial and my grandmother thinking we were having a party for her! :) And that my aunt Barbie and cousin Allison were super sick! (So glad I didn't catch anything!)

It is definitely going to be very difficult at family gathering from now on without my Paw Paw. He was the very first grandparent that I lost. I am beyond thankful and blessed to have had ALL of my grandparents at my wedding and that I have had all of my grandparents for 26 years of my life! I am just very said that my sweet Paw Paw will never get to meet our future children and that our future children will never get to meet my Paw Paw! :( But we are thankful for the LONG life that he did live. I am thankful that I got to experience life with ALL my grandparents for so long.

If you still have any of your grandparents left, PLEASE go visist them as often as you can and ALWAYS tell them you love them! You never know when that may be your last visit, hug, kiss, or "I Love You!".

 My favorite picture ever of my Nana Frances and Paw Paw!! 

Until Next Time,