Grandma Barbie

My mom, Grandma Barbie passed away at 12:04am September 2, 2017. It had been a difficult few weeks for her. She had terrible stomach pains and was constipated for 10 days before the doctors realized she had some blockage in her colon and performed an emergency colostomy procedure. Basically, after 6 days of not pooping and having terrible stomach pains she went to the ER on the advice of her primary care physician. At the ER they did a cat-scan of her stomach and diagnosed my mom with diverticulitis. They treated it with IV antibiotics and tried lots of non-invasive things to clear her colon. But after 4 days and lots more pain the doctors operated and removed part of her colon and the blockage. A few years ago she spent 3 weeks in the hospital for respiratory issues and was diagnosed with COPD (emphazyma). Her damaged respiratory system did not recover fully after the surgery. Her blood pressure was extremely low for the first few days after the surgery and then her lungs started to fail and finally her heart failed.

At the beginning of last week, Ally and Becky went to visit Grandma Debbie and Poppy Dave and I went to NY to be with parents. I arrived the morning after the surgery and stayed until today when we came home. (I did leave for 18 hours to go back home and pick up Ally, Becky and Cloey.) in her last few hours of life my mom was able to see my brothers and my Aunt Martha, and she was able to talk and communicate. 

Telling Ally that her Grandma Barbie died was one of the most difficult parenting tasks yet. Ally had spent the night at my friend Michelle's house the night it happened so in the morning I told her when I went to pick her up. Every night since Ally has cried and had such a difficult time getting to sleep. 

The funeral was yesterday and relatives came from all over the country to honor my mom. I guess that is the silver lining or the bright side, Ally got to see lots of family she doesn't usually see. I took very few pictures. It just didn't seem right. I'm blogging about it because I know this will be a significant event in Ally's life. 

We put together a slide show of pictures from my mom's life and here are some:

My mom went with me to Guatemala to finalize Ally's adoption and bring her to the USA. This is a picture of them meeting.

So many fun times during our annual week to stay with her in Siesta Key. We joined her there for 9 of Ally's 10 years.

My favorite picture I found of my mom. 

The fun times with Aunt Martha. 

The picture above is Ally's favorite.

I love this one too.

My mom was an amazing grandma. She played games, baked, did crafts and read books to Ally and her cousins:

She even did puzzles (that she hated, but Ally loved).

Blowing bubbles

I told Ally to remember fun times and she said Disney World with Grandma Barbie, when we celebrated her 70th birthday.

My mom made sure to see Ally in her favorite activities, she attended a few of Ally's annual gymnastics shows and ballet recital

Ally missed her first two days of school this week to attend the funeral and travel back home. She was surprisingly alright with that. She needed the closure and time with family to mourn my mom, we all did. And we are all prepared for some hard times of missing her in the coming days, months and years.  

We all loved Grandma Barbie.