Sad News in In the Meadow

Those of you who have been reading my diary for a while know that my mother has been living in a nursing home for most of the past year. She has had symptoms of dementia that have progressively gotten worse. Late last week she developed pneumonia. She was taken to the hospital and given lots of antibiotics, but she did not respond to them. Sadly she passed away on Monday morning. We all miss her terribly. When she first went into the nursing home she was still mostly herself, but as time went on she became confused and disoriented. Toward the end she could only eat mashed-up foods. She had basically stopped eating and lost ten pounds in the past week. It is hard on the kids but they knew she wasn’t the same person by the end. I would like to think she is in a better place where she is happy and not confused.

On Monday the kids stayed with my husband while my dad and I drove to her hometown. On Tuesday we made her funeral arrangements and drove back. The funeral will be on Friday. We are leaving tomorrow morning. The kids went to school on Tuesday and Wednesday but will miss tomorrow and Friday. I think it helps them to have something to do during this time.