Spending time

We've been up at the hospital spending as much time with MIL as we possibly can. She's a very blessed woman who's lived a full life. Her room is always full of people, conversation and laughter.

We brought most of the kids up on Monday to visit. They had a good time talking with her. I took the kids home while Tom stayed to visit. Tuesday night Tom, Pat, Val and I went in to visit. D's dh came in with his guitar. During the evening there were a few songs sang...it was beautiful to listen to.

I ended up spending the night at my parents' house. My dad drove Danielle and I up to the hospital at 6:30am Wednesday so that I could relieve my BIL. It wasn't long before there D came in with breakfast sandwiches for everyone. :o) MIL was starting to get a bit sleepy but we still had a chance to talk quite a bit.

By Wednesday 45 out of 46 grandchildren had visited MIL. The only one who didn't make it was the one who couldn't. He's just started a new teaching job down south and it was the first week of school for him. I know he gets homesick and not being here has to be really hard on him. I wish we could get him up here for a few hours at least. Tom's uncle came up from VA. It's been nice visitng with him. She's also been visited by almost all our church friends. There's usually at least 5 people in her room at any given time.

We found out they just dedicated the area MIL was in to pallative/hospice care a few weeks ago. D and I were joking that we're breaking them in pretty well. Actually the staff there has been great! They haven't said anything to us about crowd size or noise level (we're really respectful although I'm sure some outbursts of laughter have been loud).


Tom and one of his brothers spent the night Wednesday night. Thursday, Val and I had a dentist appt at 1. I brought Carrie and Janna along to take care of Danielle while I was in the chair. I wasn't sure about bringing Carrie up since MIL is getting more and more tired. She's alert to everything that's going on and being said. Her reactions are slow and she's conserving her energy so moves very little.

We bought a bunch of food at Wendy's and Taco Bell and got up to the hospital about 3:30. Tom was TIRED! He had made a bed out of 3 chairs which wasn't too comfy. I wanted to stay but was encouraged to go home and spend some time with the kids. I didn't really want to leave...neither did Carrie. She's a lot like me in that sense. But we did.

It's a good thing I did go home. I didn't realize just how tired Tom was until we were driving home. He was in NO condition to drive. (which he would've had to do if I'd stayed) Then we lost power again tonight for a couple hours! So either Tom would've had to get up and deal with it. Or Liz would've had to deal with babysitting 5 kids and a pitch black house. It was hard though knowing everyone was up there, visiting and we're missing out. I know Tom felt the same way but was too tired.

Tom and I'll be heading back up tomorrow morning. I'm not positive what time we'll be out of here by. Tom's trying to decide if he should pick up and cash his paycheck on the way in.

Danielle has been so good in all this. I don't think I could've done this with any other baby. She's so calm and good natured that she hasn't had a problem with not being let loose on the floor.

Update on Tiffany... Her family has decided to keep things private. They had a memorial for only immediate family today. My thoughts and prayers go out to them. I haven't had a chance to talk to my sister since Monday so not sure how everyone is doing.