Not many words can express what the Mrdutt family has been through the past 2 weeks. I attempted to write this post over 5 times, each time not sure what I wanted to say. You never expect that this sort of event will take place in your family - and when it does, it opens your eyes to many things. Rather than sugar-coating this experience in any way, here is a brief, personal look into our life the past two weeks.
The morning of Thursday, February 17th, we received a phone call at approximately 6:00 am. It was Chris's brother Ben, letting us know that Barb was being rushed in an ambulance to Red Cedar Medical Center in Menomonie. It was a suspected stroke.
I called my sister, Michelle, to see if she could come pick up Addy and Mason, that Chris and I were heading west to see his mom. I called into work, as did Chris, and then called my parents to give them an update. We were on the road by 7:00 am.
We arrived in Eau Claire where we met Ben, Jim and Barb - who was transported from Menomonie to Eau Claire. They administered tPA, a clot-busting drug and at this point, we were not aware of the severity of this stroke. So we sat in the waiting room, where we were shortly joined by Katie, Matt, Anna & Marek...and we prayed.
Over the next few days of Barb at the CCU (Critical Care Unit), we were overwhelmed with the visits from all of Barb's 8 siblings along with many friends, many more family members, coworkers and neighbors. We spent countless minutes by her side over 3 days, trying to get sleep when possible. The news we heard from the neurologist was extremely hard to absorb...she had lost 80% of the left side of her brain, which controls her entire right side, her speech, her mobility, along with countless other things. We had many moments of understanding with her and her family - including many personal moments with Mason. Mason visited for a few hours and said goodbye, and we weren't sure if he would ever get to see her again...
Barb was a fighter, and it was quite the impressive fight that she upheld. She was transferred up to the 4th floor neuro area, where she continued to receive lots of visits from friends and family. The nursing care at Luther was phenomenal. We had lots of moments with her, telling her we loved her, that we'd miss her, but that she gave us the strength to endure this and continues to give us strength to live on.
On Friday, February 25, Barb was brought home under Hospice care from the hospital she worked at - Westfield Hospital. It was wonderful having her back home to visit with her and allow her to enjoy a few more sunrises. We held a mass with Fr. Gerry at the house, with Barb present, and many other wonderful final memories. Mason was able to have a few more moments with her when Barb would wake up and he gave her lots of smiles - smiles I hope she remembers.
Chris and I returned to work on February 28th, with an attempt to return things to normal for a short time, but things were anything but normal. Thoughts continue to flood my brain over the many future events that take place without our mother, without our grandmother. Barb passed away on Wednesday, March 2nd.
We now plan the celebration of life that Barb wanted. First and foremost, Barb was a tissue donor - which is a wish she always made us aware of. The services will take place on Sunday, March 6th. Planning this event was not as daunting as it seemed, as Barb made it perfectly clear what her wishes were...lots of music and gosh darn it, feed the people!
Although a majority of the tears have been shed, I'm sure that more will be shed in the future, as our sweet memories remind us of her. Many of my tears were shed over the thoughts of Mason growing up without his Gramma Barb, the person that was there to help us with him the second we needed her. Mason adored her, as she did him. I am comforted knowing that she is watching over him from above and rather than being with him on the weekends or occasional holidays, she will be with him always.
She has given us so much strength. However, our visits, our dinners, our time on the lake, our cribbage games, our Christmas Eves, our birthday cakes, the birth of our children...none of them will be the same without her.
We miss you and love you Mom. Don't worry about us up there...you've taught us everything we need to be okay. Eventually, we'll be okay.
No comments:
Post a Comment