It was a long year....
So here I am again. I think it's been 1-1/2 years since I last wrote.
Jennifer gave birth to Alex. Red hair. What a cutie. He has big blue eyes and is such a cheerful little guy.
2008 was a tough year all the way around. Dad fell in mid January; fractured a bone in his neck & cracked some ribs. A few days later Mom fell and broke her femur (large bone in the upper leg - which is such a tough bone it usually takes a major car accident or a falling block of concrete to break.) So both of my parents were broken and faced months of hospitals, nursing homes and home care. Dad never made it back home again from the nursing home and after a few months he couldn't even remember where home was. It was a heartbreaking experience for all of us in the family and we finally lost him in late May. I can't write much about it - too close to the heart.
The days following his death were spent keeping an eye on mom. We brought her home the day after dad died and I kept her covered with blankets to help her through the shock phase. She was cold & shaking for days. Turns out she had a tooth infection that had gone to her knee surgery site and she came very close to losing her leg. More surgery then & more recovery. By August, she was fairly well back to normal and we hoped to get our home life back to normal. But that wasn't in the cards.
October rolled around and we were devastated by the news that Bob's dad had a brain tumor. He opted for surgery and U.W. Medical Center in Seattle - big mistake. The day before his surgery was virtually the last time we had a completely normal Wendell. The surgery took away all of his speech; some came back over the next few weeks though, but it was very limited. The two words that survived the surgeons knife were 'oh shit' & that made us laugh. We all spent Thanksgiving together in Poulsbo, Charlie and Anna came too, but that was absolutely his last talking day. The next day he went in for a speech therapy session at North Woods Nursing Home and they applied electrodes to each side of his neck in an effort to stimulate his swallowing capabilities. He adamantly yelled NO, but they proceeded anyway. After two jolts, he bolted from their office, got into the car (Doris was driving) and as they rode home, he began talking absolute jibberish. End of talking. End of communication. Beginning of the end of everything. He died in February 2009, one month short of his 83rd birthday. So sad - I've lost a good friend and an irreplaceable father in law & this world lost one fine Norwegian. Two days after he died, Doris broke her arm and went in for surgery. She has had to be cared for because she can't do anything with her left hand.
During these losses we missed out on two annual trips to Arizona. We both missed the jeeping and playing, but kept this all locked away & didn't really discuss it much. We didn't go to Wenatchee to see our property other than one quick 4 hour stop to see the neighbors. We also had 4 days at the ocean with all our kids & babies. As I said, it was a very hard year.
Charlie and Anna moved in with us in Nov 08. Charlie completed the upstairs apartment over the garage and it looks like a new condo up there, with ceilings 14' high. He did a beautiful job and they are settled in nicely. We are still working on finishing a kitchen. Just bought a new gas stove & new fridge for it. Anna has gone back to school to become a nurse and Charlie is working on a book.
Jennifer gave birth to Alex. Red hair. What a cutie. He has big blue eyes and is such a cheerful little guy.
2008 was a tough year all the way around. Dad fell in mid January; fractured a bone in his neck & cracked some ribs. A few days later Mom fell and broke her femur (large bone in the upper leg - which is such a tough bone it usually takes a major car accident or a falling block of concrete to break.) So both of my parents were broken and faced months of hospitals, nursing homes and home care. Dad never made it back home again from the nursing home and after a few months he couldn't even remember where home was. It was a heartbreaking experience for all of us in the family and we finally lost him in late May. I can't write much about it - too close to the heart.
The days following his death were spent keeping an eye on mom. We brought her home the day after dad died and I kept her covered with blankets to help her through the shock phase. She was cold & shaking for days. Turns out she had a tooth infection that had gone to her knee surgery site and she came very close to losing her leg. More surgery then & more recovery. By August, she was fairly well back to normal and we hoped to get our home life back to normal. But that wasn't in the cards.
October rolled around and we were devastated by the news that Bob's dad had a brain tumor. He opted for surgery and U.W. Medical Center in Seattle - big mistake. The day before his surgery was virtually the last time we had a completely normal Wendell. The surgery took away all of his speech; some came back over the next few weeks though, but it was very limited. The two words that survived the surgeons knife were 'oh shit' & that made us laugh. We all spent Thanksgiving together in Poulsbo, Charlie and Anna came too, but that was absolutely his last talking day. The next day he went in for a speech therapy session at North Woods Nursing Home and they applied electrodes to each side of his neck in an effort to stimulate his swallowing capabilities. He adamantly yelled NO, but they proceeded anyway. After two jolts, he bolted from their office, got into the car (Doris was driving) and as they rode home, he began talking absolute jibberish. End of talking. End of communication. Beginning of the end of everything. He died in February 2009, one month short of his 83rd birthday. So sad - I've lost a good friend and an irreplaceable father in law & this world lost one fine Norwegian. Two days after he died, Doris broke her arm and went in for surgery. She has had to be cared for because she can't do anything with her left hand.
During these losses we missed out on two annual trips to Arizona. We both missed the jeeping and playing, but kept this all locked away & didn't really discuss it much. We didn't go to Wenatchee to see our property other than one quick 4 hour stop to see the neighbors. We also had 4 days at the ocean with all our kids & babies. As I said, it was a very hard year.
Charlie and Anna moved in with us in Nov 08. Charlie completed the upstairs apartment over the garage and it looks like a new condo up there, with ceilings 14' high. He did a beautiful job and they are settled in nicely. We are still working on finishing a kitchen. Just bought a new gas stove & new fridge for it. Anna has gone back to school to become a nurse and Charlie is working on a book.
posted by selein at 10:59 PM
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