Goodbye

The kid’s great grandmother died yesterday. She had a stroke on Thursday and was transfered to hospice care. The children got to say goodbye to her. She had been pretty unresponsive all day, occasionally opening her eyes but not really seeing. Everyone kept telling us that hearing was last to go; tell us that she could hear us until the end. It was hard to believe but I thought it was important to the kid’s to get to be able to say goodbye. Well, she certainly heard them, hard to not to. It was the most animated she was all day. I was holding her hand and D put his on top of mine. He was talking to her and then asked me and asked if she knew who was speaking to her. I was going to do the mother’s reassuring, “of course blah blah blah” . . . then she squeezed our hands. It wasn’t hard, but it was enough for him to notice. He leaned over to wrap his arms around her and she picked up her hand and placed it on his back, to return to the hug. She had been laying quietly with her eyes shut so long that I was just giving lip service to the idea that she knew we were there; but she she hugged him. C came over and she reached for his hand and he held great grandma’s hand for a while. They sat in the room and colored and came over and talked to her and drew pictures. After being in such a quiet room for so long, the joyous noise of children was wonderful. And she knew there were there. She opened her eyes to look at each of them.

She died peacefully yesterday knowing everyone loved her. Her daughter, granddaughter and best friend were there until the end. So to the woman who taught me to knit, tied to teach me to make a pie crust even though I was hopeless, crocheted doll dresses for her great granddaughter until the end, made the best rice krispy treats in the world and actually made green eggs and ham many years ago for this fussy eater, goodbye. Goodbye grandma, we’re all going to miss you.