cellini's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Death My grandfather died yesterday. We knew that it was probably coming but there had been some hope that he would pull through, depending on the diagnosis. He went into the hospital about a month ago for what looked like pneumonia on top of chronic kidney problems. His lungs got worse, they couldn't come up with a diagnosis and then they needed to perform surgery to get a lung tissue sample to test. He was told that he would have to be on a ventilator for the surgery and for at last a few days afterward. His fear was that he would just end up on the ventilator indefinitely, so he gave very clear instructions that he was only to be kept on life support so long as there was a plausible way off of it. Within about a week of the surgery he was still on the ventilator and everything else seemed to be failing as well. His lungs weren't going to recover, he'd had a stroke, his kidneys were now useless, etc. After a meeting with his doctors, they took out the ventilator tube and my grandfather died within a few minutes. He was 78, though he seemed much younger. I had been hoping to get up to see him before he died but I was waiting until he was off of the ventilator and no longer sedated so that he would know that I was there. Too late now. He was a short man with a bald head and a beard and a Boston accent. He was perpetually smiling. He had computers around the house since the early 1980's, was on the internet before the rest of the world was and he was one of the most tech-savvy people I knew, right up until the end. As an adult he managed to buy the house he'd grown up in and that was where he lived until he was brought to the hospital last month. That same house burned to the ground 40 years ago when my grandmother and most of my aunts and uncles were murdered by an arsonist. Above ground, part of the house is still original and the whole basement is still the same as it was before the fire. It was he that gave me the old rifles that had belonged to his father-in-law and had survived the fire while hanging on a wall in the basement. This was about 6 years ago and it led to my learning to hunt for food, which in turn gave me the new career in writing and teaching that I have today. _________________________ I used what was left of my frequent flier miles to book a ticket up to Massachusetts. I'm flying up tomorrow morning and returning on Wednesday night. The funeral is on Monday, leaving some time afterward so my brother and I are doing something a little different. He's driving up with his wife, who has never left the United States. Since he's going to have his car there, I pointed out that Montreal is only 5 hours away. We're probably going to leave for Montreal on Monday afternoon and he can get me back to the airport on Wednesday in time to fly home. This will be the first time I've ever been to Canada. Hopefully. My problem at the moment is that I cannot seem to find my passport. After I got home yesterday I went out into the upper meadow with a big bowl and I picked something over half a gallon of wild blackberries. I could literally pick non-stop for the next 3 days without running out. My hands are scratched. I spent about 30 minutes afterward pulling tiny thorns out of my fingers but it was worth it. I promised Harry that I would take him squirrel hunting after work today. I will leave my scoped .22 behind and hunt with the single-shot .22 with open sights that my grandfather gave to me. We have only had 1 death in the family since I was about 11 years old. An uncle by marriage died in 2005 and I wasn't able to go to the funeral. This isn't something I am accustomed to. 5:08 p.m. - 2010-06-18 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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