The summer of changes

     Starting the in early spring of 2011, I got a phone call from my family in Florida telling me that my father wasn't doing well.  He had had a stroke in January and had been hospitalized since that time.  I had visited him after that, and he seemed to be progressing pretty well, but he was a cancer survivor, having had throat cancer.  He was cancer free, but the cancer caused damage to his throat.  Previously he was a sports announcer for Disney in his retirement, but he had to give that up because of the changes in his voice after the cancer treatments.  Since the stroke, he had a great deal of trouble swallowing anything and he was only able to drink liquids for awhile and then he couldn't even do that.  He was starting to see that he would never go home from the hospital, and he wanted to be taken off of his feeding tube so that he could die.
     I left home, got on a plane, and flew to Florida.  It took awhile, and he had to request that the liquids be stopped as well before he was able to leave this life.  I had one night, when I first got there to sit with him, and we talked.  He could still talk and understand at that point. I told him what a good dad he had always been to me.  I told him that I thought he was brave, and I still do.
     Wendy and James were vacationing in Florida when all of this came to a head, so they were already there.  Danielle flew in to be with us as well, and Michael wanted to, but he was in the middle of a semester at school, and I told him that he should stay there and go to classes. Dad died with all of us in the room with him.  His wife, her son, his best friend Lewis, and his wife were all there with Dad when he left this world.
     Both my daughters were pregnant at this time and they wanted me to be at the births of their children, which, of course, I wanted to be there for.
     I was finishing up teaching my last year of school so after Dad died, I went back and finished out my school year.  We loaded a moving truck in New Mexico, and with the help of our ward members and friends, we got everything packed and loaded.  Fortunately for us, we sold our house without even putting it on the market to a family in our ward. We stored all of our belongings in Danielle's dining room, and it was packed floor to ceiling with all of our things. We went to Las Vegas several times to look for a home. We lived with Danielle and her family while we were there, and we finally found one and put in an offer on it.  It was a forclosure and in pretty bad shape, so we had quite a bit of work being done on it while we traveled to Florida.  We needed to choose all the design finishes, which was really kind of fun for me. Then we drove back to Florida to sort through all of Dad's things and load a moving truck, full of his things (and my mom's) to head to our new home in Las Vegas.
     At this time, I went to Idaho for Wendy & James' graduation from BYUI and then back again for the birth of their baby girl, Zoey.  Two weeks later, Danielle gave birth to her youngest boy and I was there for that birth as well.
     Then in the late fall, we were able move into our new home in Las Vegas.  It seems that all the major changes that can happen in a person's life happened to me in one summer.
     For all the change in my life at that time, I think we did pretty well.  Except for my dad dying, they were all pretty positive changes so that helped.  I did miss teaching, and I still do, but time marches on.
     We had to find all new doctors for Richard, which took some time.  He has so many, and we can't just get any doctor now, we have to find the best ones.  I think we did okay in that department in the end, but it was a long process.
     Unpacking basically by myself was exhausting, and I swore I would never move again.  I'm just grateful for those in New Mexico that helped us pack and load, to my son-in-law who drove the truck from NM to NV, the missionaries in FL that loaded the truck, my brother who drove the truck from FL to NV, and the missionaries in LV that helped us unload, thrice. I am indebted to many.

Our house in New Mexico

Our House in Nevada

My last good picture of my dad