Monday, September 19, 2011

Graduation of Grandpa

On Saturday afternoon we left Nelson and headed to my Uncle Brett's house, a stop over on the way to Vancouver. My grandparents were there visiting from Calgary.  They had not seen Anaya in more than a year. Anguard, the mobile care unit, safely carried us from Nelson to Sandpoint Idaho, a 3.5 hour drive.  Crossing the border was simple as we had all of the appropriate paperwork in order.  We arrived at my Uncle's at midnight, parked and went to sleep.

In the morning I got up and went inside the house to visit.  Grandpa Al and Grandma Vivian were laying in bed relaxing and drinking coffee.  Both of them have health issues that have them in bed a lot of the time.  My grandma fell down the stairs last month and broke her collar bone and her shoulder.

Walking into the bedroom, grandpa squinted at me and said "Who's that? Oh!  It's Camara!"  He gave me a big warm hug and seemed very happy to see me.  As there were no chairs in the room I got up on the bed and sat cross legged on the end of the bed.  We talked about the RV, we talked about Anaya, we talked about their memories of using Anguard for the last 20 years.  My grandmother was in the middle of a story about having a trunk of clothing on top of the car - that opened in the middle of the freeway...and we were all having a good laugh.

Then I looked over at my grandfather and his eyes were not normal, his expression was pained and he was not breathing.  I tried to wake him out of it but he could not answer me.  I ran to get my uncle.  We began CPR and mouth to mouth while on the phone with 911.  The ambulance arrived and the paramedics and firefighters worked on Grandpa.  My grandma layed on the bed beside him, while they tried to save his life.  I held her, and when needed I helped the paramedics with suctioning and maintaining the airway.

After a long time, and after trying everything, efforts were terminated and he was pronounced dead.  My grandmother is devastated.  They are making arrangements for cremation and for a funeral.  We will still be taking Anaya to Vancouver to Canuck place as cancelling that appointment would be detrimental to Anaya's health.  I'm sure grandpa would want me to take good care of the baby instead of cancelling her appointments to go to his funeral in Calgary, Alberta.  Grandma and Uncle Brett agree.

Anaya is doing well and got to have a nice warm soak in a tub yesterday. She is a huge comfort to grandma as it takes her mind off of losing grandpa. Angel and her puppy kisses make grandma smile and I held grandma's hand as she fell asleep last night.

I will post again as soon as we get to Vancouver.


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