my grandmother is dead

[edenfalling]

My grandmother died today.

Ardis had an appointment for a routine coronary angiogram this morning, as followup for her heart attack a couple years ago and to see if she needed a new stent. During the procedure, she went into cardiac arrest. The doctors got her heart restarted, but she was unconscious and couldn't breathe without a respirator. Her condition was listed as serious.

My mom called me around 3pm with that information. I was on break. I had just returned to the store with a cup of vegetable beef soup from Subway.

About ten minutes later, Mom called back to say that my dad had spoken with the hospital, and Ardis was dead. Her blood pressure had fallen and fallen, and even though the doctors kept her heart going for a while, eventually it stopped.

...

I just. She survived two bouts of cancer, a still-unidentified inflammatory disease she caught in France, two knee replacements, and a heart attack in a tiny mountain village in Croatia, only to die like this?

My dad and Aunt Jan are flying/have flown to Minnesota to take care of the cremation, arranging a memorial service and funeral, finding and reading her will, and stuff like that. Right now, nobody knows much of anything.

...

I was going to mail Ardis her Christmas present tomorrow. I got her a copy of The Mighty Queens of Freeville, by Amy Dickinson. I had thought about giving it to her as a birthday present, but I forgot to change the page on my perpetual calendar, so I missed that date. Now she will never get to read it.

I feel worst for Aunt Jan. She lost her husband in September, right after his birthday, and now her stepmother in December, right before Christmas.

...

This has been a very bad year for my paternal family.

Comments

[rurounitriv.livejournal.com]

*HUG*

[edenfalling]

Thank you.

[alchymie.livejournal.com]

So sorry, luv. ((hugs)) My condolences to you and your family.

[edenfalling]

Thank you. We are all kind of in shock.

My dad got to Minnesota and is staying at Ardis's house. He said she was in the middle of writing her Christmas cards; they are all spread out on the dining room table, so she could finish them in the afternoon. Obviously that is not going to happen now.

[lukita.livejournal.com]

*sends hugs*

[edenfalling]

*wraps self up in hugs*

[edenfalling]

She really, really was. Vicky and I were talking last night, and she said this hit harder than Grandad, Grandpa, or Grandmother Ruth (and probably harder than Grandma Doris will, eventually), because Ardis was the grandparent with whom we moved beyond the child-to-grandparent relationship with and got to know as adults. We liked and loved her because she was Ardis, not just because she was our (step)grandmother.

So far, it is looking like the memorial service and funeral will be in mid-January. (She wanted to be cremated, so there isn't the time-crunch a full-body burial imposes.)

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry, Liz. What a shock. *hugs*

[edenfalling]

*clings* It was just so out of nowhere.