A little note, Ray's surgery went fine, though we did learn that his left knee is in the same shape as his right knee was, before he had his knee cap replaced, also known as either a partial or medial knee replacement. So sometime in the near future, depending on how difficult our medical insurance company is going to be, he will more than likely be getting the same done on his left knee. He's healing well, though it's only been a couple of days. There is a bit of pain, but nothing on the extreme side, unless he overdoes something, as he did the day of surgery (he wasn't feeling any pain and as I was dealing with low blood sugar and nausea, he ended up going to the store (roommate drove, he wasn't that insane or stupid) and pushing himself to get a few items that we had forgotten.
With that aside, he got some news on Friday afternoon, something that he has been almost expecting to hear during the past year. The news that his mother had died. From what we are to understand, she went in for surgery to fix something, not sure what, but she came out of the surgery and was doing really well for a couple of days or a week, then suddenly she made a turn for the worst. She fought for nearly 2 days, which we learned the doctors were surprised that she lasted for those 2 days, but the end result was that she lost her battle. She has been in bad health for nearly 10 or 11 years now, in recent years she's gotten worse, in fact, around Mother's Day she had a stroke which nearly took her out, as her outlook of her future was death. But as she was a strong and stubborn woman, her sons learned such from her, she battled her way up and out of the depression she developed and fought her way back to near good health, as excellent health hasn't been in her life for over 14 years now.
She is now no longer in pain, no longer suffering from the many different ailments she had been dealing with over the past 20 years or so. No services are going to be held, her remains, which will be cremated will be sent to her youngest son and when he receives them, he will get the paperwork taken care of and send Ray's vial of her remains to us. Her last wish was to get out of Florida, she wasn't able to in life, but now, she will be with her sons and their wives as well as with her granddaughter, who was the life and soul of her life. Ray also told his brother that she will be returned home to California, as that is where she was born and raised.
Another piece of news we received was that Ray's maternal grandmother died either a couple of days, weeks or month ago. The reason we don't have the exact time of death was that we have been estranged from both her and our grandfather. they weren't happy that we didn't call every week to talk to them, and when they learned we moved out of the state, that didn't win us many points either. But we weren't the only ones who were and are on their bad side, Ray's brother, his wife and daughter also haven't been able to have either one of them talked to them either, he did a couple of things that they thought were bad choices in his life. The both of them are very strict and believe they have the right to decide what their children, grandchildren and their great-grandchildren should be doing with their lives.
So as you can see, we got hit with a lot of bad news in one day, even though we haven't been in contact with our grandparents, we still loved them as they were family. So between Ray having surgery, the bad news and a virus that hit my computer the night of Ray's surgery, I have been in a tailspin, as I try to keep Ray's mind off his mother, which hasn't been an easy task and I would be worried if it was such. I know I stated that I would be starting to do physicals for everyone in camp last Friday night, until I feel I am able to come into camp and be able to do the tasks I have at hand, I will more than likely only be coming in for short periods of time, to be around my family here, who I have come to see as an extension of my own r/t family. I am hoping to be able to come in tomorrow night and do a couple of physicals, as I know migration is close at hand. I know that r/t comes first always, but there is that need that has started, a need to escape my r/t and join in on life in camp, something to keep my mind from turning to thoughts that hurt to go through right now.
I ask that if you are able to, besides thoughts and prayers, to light a candle in mother's memory. -smiles sadly and heads off to bed to get some much needed sleep, with the hope the nightmares don't return tonight-
