Kathy’s obituary was in the paper last Sunday, October 18th. I was wondering if it would make me sad, but it was okay. I thought it was expensive. But, 1. there was nothing I could do about it. 2. Obits keep the newspapers in business. And 3. the one thing I wanted to accomplish was to let people know about Kathy’s… Read more →
Category: Caregiving
Friday and Saturday: undertakings
Friday, October 16, 2015 Last Friday was the day I had to go to the funeral home to sign some forms. I decided to take Marty with me so I could give him a few little walks and I wanted to stop by the Wilbraham Library on my way home to ask about having Kathy’s celebration there. The funeral home… Read more →
Wednesday and Thursday: Goodbye
It has been over a week since Kathy passed away. I marked the actual time by having a glass of her wine out on our deck with Marty, my basset sitting on my feet. Don’t worry it was a small glass of wine. Marty and I had just finished mowing the leaves. Again. The leaves seem to keep falling whether… Read more →
The final decline
CAREGIVING: This is really a post about the week or so before Kathy passed away. I’m writing so I can remember. I need to go a few steps backward. Then maybe I can move forward. The indications were all there. Kathy was starting to have digestion issues again. Besides having diarrhea, she was regurgitating food. She wasn’t vomiting but when… Read more →
Rest in Peace, Kathy
CAREGIVING: Kathy passed away Wednesday afternoon, October 14, 2015, at about 3:00. I believe she passed away happy. I wet her tongue with some of her favorite Chardonnay and put on a DVD of Gone With the Wind, her favorite movie. She stopped responding. I know she did her best and I did my best. Her hospice nurse was very sad and… Read more →
My brother Paul Lehndorff, RIP
LIFE: My brother Paul Christopher Martin Lehndorff passed away on Sunday, September 6th. There is so much about his story that I wish were different; things that I wish I could have changed or helped him in some way early in his life. But that’s the way it is. Paul was under hospice care at Minerva, a nursing home in… Read more →
House Call: Back from the Hospital
CAREGIVING: Last Thursday my main task was to get Kathy back on hospice again. Because she went to the hospital for a procedure to “extend her life” – the feeding tube – she had to be discharged from Mercy Hospice. Now that she was back home she could be readmitted to hospice. I had called the hospice to let them… Read more →