About Grandma Schueler
I grew up on a dairy farm in west central Minnesota. It had been in the family since the early 1900′s. My grandmother’s aunt and uncles lived there when she was a little girl (only great grandma married of the four kids, I used her wedding picture in a collage this week). When she got married my grandfather bought the farm from them and they retired to the nearby town of Willmar. Grandma and Grandpa raised 8 children on that farm, my dad the second youngest and the youngest son.
When dad was attending the local community college in preparation for going to a 4-year college for an agri-business degree grandpa had yet another heart attack and was told he had to retire. Dad ran the dairy and attended school for the remainder of that year, but it was too much so he just took over the dairy. Mom and dad got married and grandma and grandpa built a house across the street from us. I grew up in the same house that all my aunts and uncles grew up in. My dad has never moved, except down the hall from the smallest bedroom to the master bedroom. I inherited a bright bubble gum pink room (including a slanted ceiling that was painted to match the walls) from my youngest aunt, as the room had been hers and she had chosen the color. I spent most of my time trying to paper the walls myself with photos from teen magazines because I was never a really big pink person.
Most people don’t grow up in such proximity to their grandparents. Being so close geographically meant we were very close in our relationship as well. Grandpa still had his wood shop in the other half of our garage. Grandma had the hill on which to sled which meant every time we went sledding we were invited in for hot cocoa and cookies. But, with my mom being blind grandma also servered a parental role in many respects. She often took me to my dance classes or picked me up from volleyball practice (she shared that duty with my other grandparents who were in town), she helped me memorize my catechism in preparation for my confirmation, she helped me with my spelling lists. She taught me how to pop popcorn on the stove top and how to make good mashed potatoes. She taught me how to make great apple sauce. She taught me how to dust properly by hiding money under things so that the better I dusted the more dimes and nickles and occassionaly quaters I had in my pocket. She was a parent (not that my parents weren’t as well) but without the nasty disciplinarian role. She let me stir my ice cream and chocolate sauce until it was runny chocolate ice cream (dad said that was playing with our food and wouldn’t let us) and when I went along grocery shopping to help with the lifting she would buy me bubble ice cream cones.
She has had many health problems. She has been on medication for diabetes for as along as I can remember and has been insulin dependent for many years now. She has also had congestive heart failure for over 20 years. She has had both hips replaced over the years. More recently she has had a wound on her leg for many months now that isn’t healing so I knew things were going down hill. However, yesterday I got notice that she is in the hospital again. Her heart has weakened so much that she has fluid not only around her heart, but also around her liver. That is a sign that the heart is weakening very drastically and possibly rapidly, though medications should be able to help somewhat. She will be in the hospital through the weekend to drain the fluid and improve her strength and stamina and then she’ll be moved to a nursing home once again.
How well she does will be drastically affected by who her roomate at the nursing home is. The last time she was there her roommate was unresponsive which meant my very social grandmother had little stimulation and it made her depressed. If that happens again it is unlikely she’ll hang on for too long. Really, at age 88 and as a widow for 3.5 years (grandpa died on my wedding day) should she hang on? Grandpa was controlling so she has gotten to live a bit of a different life these 3.5 years, but her health hasn’t really allowed her to maximize that experience.
All this is leading up to the fact that I decided I need to go home again to visit her. I’m sure that seems rather drastic to many people for me to rush home to visit her. Especially when they aren’t saying that death is imminent. But, I want to see her and hug her and talk to her when she’ll remember my visit and this could be my last chance. There is also the advantage that my sister got a job that isn’t at the farm and now has her own place in town and she is having a house warming party on Saturday to which I was invited as a bit of a joke. I’m going to surprise her. No one but mom and dad know I’m coming home. Not even my mom’s parents. This also means that since I was so lazy about getting to the PO and making a decision about grandpa’s hat that I’ll get to give these things to them in person and take pictures! And, size grandpa’s hat properly with a touch of felting.
I leave very early tomorrow morning and return very late Tuesday night thanks to a great airfare deal. So, I likely won’t be posting again until possibly as late as next Thursday. I’ll be knitting away on swamp socks (which haven’t grown too much since yesterday due to all this last minute travel planning) and *should* have at least one finished sock to share with you upon my return.
EDIT: 9:26pm 2/3, Amber called to give me an update. Grandma also has renal failure so time is *definitely* limited at this point. When she got the news from my aunt while visiting grandma they did not know how advanced it was so there is no word on the approximation of time left and they are still talking nursing home on Monday at this point. But I am *really* glad I am making the trip now. Also, Amber has absolutely *no* clue I’m coming. Mom said Dad is also trying to come up with excuses to crash her party but mom has given him orders that he cannot as it is a “kids” party, LOL! I’m glad there will be a balance to this visit.
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