Oct 2009
Wake me up when September ends ...
10/06/2009 19:49
Wow,
where to begin.
Most everyone knows Skip's mom, DiAnn, passed away on September 10th. She'd been in the hospital for about 10 days for some electrolyte issues and an infection, and we'd actually thought she would be returning home that day (Medicare was anxious to get her off of the hospital rolls ... and Angie was prepared to care for her at home). So it was quite a shock to get the call from Angie in the middle of the night, saying the hospital had called and she was gone.
We ended up staying in Nebraska for 10 days - longest stretch we've done back in Nebraska since having left. We were fortunate in that DiAnn had made many of the arrangements. Skip gave a moving eulogy at the service; he did a great job - I don't know that I would've been able to do it. He's gotten several compliments since the service about how moving it all was; Pastor Demmel also did a great job.
We spent the week just taking care of some of DiAnn's bills and the like, and working on the plethora of thank yous for the flowers, yummy food, and memorials received. DiAnn's wishes were that any memorial go back to the Phelps County Foundation, so that's where they'll go - we're going to try to start a perpetual music scholarship at Holdrege High in her name. Everyone remembered DiAnn's high school days and her performance in "South Pacific" - it's too bad that pre-dated camcorders!
In spite of the sadness, there was also some good - got to see many friends we hadn't for some time. Got a great dinner at the Schrock's house one night (mmmm ... fresh beef, halibut and salmon), and went to Grand Island one night to have dinner with the Priester's. Oh - funny story - kids all go downstairs to play and mommies and daddies stay upstairs to visit. Katie starts to cry - Mommies head downstairs to investigate. Katie is in a Thomas the Train tent sort of thing, on a chair ... tied down with a jump rope. When asked how this came to be, 4 year old Alyssa replied "I didn't want her to go upstairs!" The weather the whole time we were back was perfect - highs in the mid 70s and sunny most days; made us both homesick for the Big Red state.
Skip is posting a video of the service, as well as the slide show that he prepared that was played both at the service and the visitation.
I posted a lot of pictures on the "Katie Pictures" pages ... capturing some of the fun we did have these last few months, since the last update.
Most everyone knows Skip's mom, DiAnn, passed away on September 10th. She'd been in the hospital for about 10 days for some electrolyte issues and an infection, and we'd actually thought she would be returning home that day (Medicare was anxious to get her off of the hospital rolls ... and Angie was prepared to care for her at home). So it was quite a shock to get the call from Angie in the middle of the night, saying the hospital had called and she was gone.
We ended up staying in Nebraska for 10 days - longest stretch we've done back in Nebraska since having left. We were fortunate in that DiAnn had made many of the arrangements. Skip gave a moving eulogy at the service; he did a great job - I don't know that I would've been able to do it. He's gotten several compliments since the service about how moving it all was; Pastor Demmel also did a great job.
We spent the week just taking care of some of DiAnn's bills and the like, and working on the plethora of thank yous for the flowers, yummy food, and memorials received. DiAnn's wishes were that any memorial go back to the Phelps County Foundation, so that's where they'll go - we're going to try to start a perpetual music scholarship at Holdrege High in her name. Everyone remembered DiAnn's high school days and her performance in "South Pacific" - it's too bad that pre-dated camcorders!
In spite of the sadness, there was also some good - got to see many friends we hadn't for some time. Got a great dinner at the Schrock's house one night (mmmm ... fresh beef, halibut and salmon), and went to Grand Island one night to have dinner with the Priester's. Oh - funny story - kids all go downstairs to play and mommies and daddies stay upstairs to visit. Katie starts to cry - Mommies head downstairs to investigate. Katie is in a Thomas the Train tent sort of thing, on a chair ... tied down with a jump rope. When asked how this came to be, 4 year old Alyssa replied "I didn't want her to go upstairs!" The weather the whole time we were back was perfect - highs in the mid 70s and sunny most days; made us both homesick for the Big Red state.
Skip is posting a video of the service, as well as the slide show that he prepared that was played both at the service and the visitation.
I posted a lot of pictures on the "Katie Pictures" pages ... capturing some of the fun we did have these last few months, since the last update.