May She Rest in Peace

Thursday, May 27th, 2010 10 Comments

Tonight Mormor, my grandmother past away. She was 92 years old.

Almost two weeks ago Mormor fell down and broke her hip. She went in for hip surgery and for the past week and a half has been slowly recovering in a convalescent hospital for physical therapy. My sis and I came down to visit her last weekend. Saturday she was in good spirits and very happy to see us. When we came to visit Sunday, she was hooked up to an oxygen tube. She pulled me aside telling me that Saturday night she overexerted herself during physical therapy and was having trouble breathing, which is why she was hooked up to the oxygen tank. She was a little scared but still very optimistic.

While I was in class tonight I got a phone call from Josh telling me Mormor was rushed to the ER as her heart rate dropped. A little over an hour later when I was on my way home from class my dad called me and broke the news: she was gone. Apparently she had a blood clot that went to her brain*. When she was still in the hospital right after her hip surgery she had a blood loss situation, which they believe was what caused the clot.

I called my mom and cried with her. The worst sound I have ever heard was hearing my grandpa sobbing in the background. When my dad broke the news all I kept thinking about was my grandpa and how sad I am for him. My mom put my grandpa briefly on the phone and he sobbed, “Cristina I am so upset. I am so depressed.” It broke my heart into a million pieces. I have never seen or heard this man cry in my entire life until now.

Dani, Joshua, and I are heading down to my grandparents house tomorrow. I just want to hug my grandpa right now.

Mormor, I know we had our differences in the past, but I love you. I miss you.

♥ Your Little Cristina

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*The coroner called this morning and said her official cause of death was a pulmonary embolism.

Tackling Their House

Monday, May 24th, 2010 3 Comments

As I mentioned in my previous post, my sister and I spent the weekend at my grandparents house. We came down Friday night and Saturday morning my mom left to go back home. Meanwhile, my sis, grandpa, and I visited my grandma in the nursing home she’s temporarily staying in. She was in good spirits and very happy to see us.

We informed my grandma we were going to be getting DSL set up at their house. She then said to me, “I want to get your mom a portable internet.” What she meant to say is that she wanted to get a laptop for my mom as a thank you for all the work she has been doing. She considers me to be the computer know-it-all so she had me go pick one out.

My mom had been wanting a laptop for a long time, but she never got around to getting one mainly because she’s not really that computer savvy. I chose a 15″ MacBook Pro with the 2.4GHz processor. I would have gotten her just a plain old MacBook, but because she wanted the 15″ screen I went Pro since the MacBook is only 13″. So far she is very happy with it.

Sunday afternoon while waiting for my mom to come back down, my sis and I decided to organize my grandma’s sewing room. Now for as long as I can remember, her sewing room has been the one room no one was ever allowed to go in. This is because she is quite the hoarder (she knows it and is embarrassed), and her sewing room is the worst room in the house.

As you can see, you can’t even walk in that room. It has always been this way. I have never, ever seen this room clean. In fact, I didn’t even know what all was in that room until my sis and I began cleaning it out. Everything went into two bags: trash and stuff to go through. Once we finished we had about 5 bags of garbage and 10 bags of stuff to go through.

To prevent that room from ever going back to the way it was, we moved the futon in there, so we now have two guest rooms upstairs. I Febrezed the heck out of those curtains since it was obvious this room hasn’t been cleaned in at least 20+ years. The rug that was in there was destroyed (again thanks to not being cleaned in years), so we rounded up a couple rugs from around the house.

As for the bags of “stuff to go through” we put them in the garage so only my mom or grandpa can access them; also they can only be gone through one at a time. Most of the stuff is fabric, sewing materials, etc. and any pieces of clothing that needed to be fixed. Plus any items my mom had given my grandma to donate were there as well (my grandma would end up going through and keeping stuff my mom wanted donated).

My mom is going to try tackling the bags of “stuff to go through” because she’ll be able to get rid of things a lot quicker than my grandma would. My grandma has to realize she can no longer do sewing projects nor can she hang on to all this stuff.

So Much Going On

Friday, May 21st, 2010 3 Comments

As of today, it has been one year since we moved! We moved from a duplex owned by my grandparents in Marin to my deceased grandmother’s home in the Sacramento area. I can’t believe it went from this to this.

I think the best part about our place is that we put a ton of work into it and we’re finished/satisfied. With our old place in Larkspur it felt incomplete. A year later I am happy to be where we are and can’t wait for the day when we can look for a house closer to home to raise a family in.

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In other news, Wednesday I registered for summer classes!

Design Layout: Mondays 1-5pm
Advanced Image Manipulation: Mondays 5:30-9:30pm
Introduction to Photography: Thursdays 1-5pm
Visual Language & Culture: Thursdays 5:30-9:30pm

I’m pretty happy, mainly because I only have to go to school twice a week. I’m hoping this will open up some time to get other web projects, wedding stuff, etc. done. I’m excited, especially for my photography class.

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This weekend I was going to help my friend Debbie move, go to sushi, try on wedding dresses with my sis/bridesmaids, go to service with family, and catch up with homework. Instead, my sis and I are heading to the Bay Area to relieve my mom while we watch my grandpa.

My mom came home last Saturday for the first time after being in the Bay Area for about two weeks. She had been helping my grandparents as my grandpa was recovering from his minor heart attack; my grandma can’t drive so my mom was responsible for taking them to doctor’s appointments, grocery shopping, etc. until my grandpa could gain his strength back.

My mom was preparing to go back down on Monday when Sunday night she received a phone call from the neighbor saying my GRANDMA was taken to the hospital. Apparently she went downstairs for God knows what and fell down thus breaking her hip. Because she was in the hospital there was no one home to take care of my grandpa, who couldn’t do a whole lot due to his weakened condition. My mom had to rush down late Sunday night so she could be there for him.

My grandma had to go in for hip surgery this week and once she is recovered from that she is going into a temporary nursing home for physical therapy. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but we’re going to have to get a nurse or someone hired to take care of my grandparents. No one is in the position to come live with them, nor are they anywhere near ready to sell their house so they can afford to go into a nursing home. I’m at least trying to get internet set-up at their house, so I can come down more and still get my stuff done.

It’s a tough situation, and hopefully we’re gonna get through it.