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Tender mercies that happened around Roberta's passing

 Here are some things I want to remember about when Roberta passed away and the time leading up to the funeral and the funeral.
My mom and dad had been out of town and got back the night before Roberta passed away. I feel like she really waited for my mom to be back and Mom does too. She said she could tell it was close when she got back that night.
Marian and I got to spend the day with Evelyn and Roberta while my mom ran an errand to Gunnison, Utah on Tuesday. We didn't give her the bath we had planned on but changed her brief for the last time and got to just sit and be with her.
My mom and Evelyn were in the room with her when she slipped through the veil. My mom was present and not on her phone but crocheting and just sitting being with Evelyn and Roberta, which wasn't a normal thing.
I was helping to clean up the set from the play Lilly was in that night. I dropped the trailer off at my cousins that I had borrowed and was planning on going to Evelyn and Roberta's to check on them when Lucy called and wanted to go to the sleepover Lilly and her had planned at Grandma and Grandpa Richins. I went home to get her and dropped her off at there house. Just as I pulling out of their driveway my dad called to tell me the news.  I made it almost the end of the call before I was a bawling mess. I was 5 minutes away from their house and had already planned on going there.
Glen was home with the little kids and was willing to stay with them and call his parents and the older girls to let them know.
Janene woke up and brought the older girls over to Evelyn and Roberta's to be with us and stayed a little while herself. She has been so so good though this time.
Evelyn was beside herself but in true Evelyn fashion used humor to lighten the mood and help us all.
Marian and I could tell that Roberta was so close and warned the hospice nurse that we thought she had moved to the active phase of dying.  Finding a list on the internet of the phases of dying was so helpful but also a bit heartbreaking to know it was just hanging around us.
My aunt from Virginia had gotten to come and spend about a month with Evelyn and Roberta from the end of August to almost the end of September. She left for a trip to Europe to see her son and his family a few days after her passing but was still in the US and not traveling when it happened.


Comments

HW said…
It is so important to remember the blessings of the hard times! You are so good to document them for us and for you. I'm still feeling for you as you are missing her.
kirsta said…
So many beautiful and tender mercies. They are important and help a lot with grief! So wonderful to have so many people around who love Roberta and Evelyn both to go through this with. Not easy stuff!
Paige said…
I love you so much. The way life weaves its way through and around death is the most dramatic part of those moments. Cleaning up a stage set, going to Gunnison or Europe, having a sleepover. Yet there at the same time you have Roberta actively getting the song of life finished. Wow. I had tears over this as I read it.

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