My sincere thanks to all of you who left such kind comments on the passing of my father. Your thoughts are truly appreciated, and I look forward to visiting each of you very soon. I will be staying with my mom tonight and Wednesday night; my sister stayed with her all of last week. We're trying to help mom to gradually transition to being there alone. She's not afraid to stay there by herself, but she does dread being alone all the time. She's very fortunate in that she has truly wonderful neighbors, church family, and us.
I titled this post "Gratitude" and that may seem strange upon losing a father. However, his passing could have been so much worse, and much more frightening for him and my mom, had they not gone to the hospital when they did. My dad essentially died from kidney failure; being on dialysis for the past five years was so hard on his body. When he went to the hospital two weeks ago, he had an infection and an obstruction. The infection was responding to antibiotics, but the obstruction could only be fixed by surgery, and my dad was absolutely not a candidate for surgery at that point. His body was weak, he'd lost so much weight, and his immune system was compromised. The surgeon talked to us in detail about this on Saturday afternoon. There were so many "what ifs" and risks, my mom was agonizing over making a decision. Fortunately, God took that decision out of her hands. My dad just slipped into a deep sleep sometime Saturday, and didn't wake again.
My father passed away this afternoon -- on our son's 28th birthday. Those of you who visit here regularly probably know my dad has been struggling with serious health problems for several years. He fought the good fight, but his body was just worn out. We're glad that he's no longer suffering, but we will miss him so.
I will return to write more soon.
Blessings,
When we went to Charleston back in April of this year, we tried to see some new (to us) places on this trip. On one of the days there, we visited Magnolia Plantation and Gardens. For us, the highlight of this spot was the gardens, more so than the house.
