Okay, okay, I won't end it at that. As you probably all know, Granny died a couple weeks ago and it has been a sad/happy new year. Since she was a Christian I am happy that she is in Heaven and she can walk around and doesn't have anymore pain but at the same time I'm sad that she is gone. Since I was the youngest grandchild I don't remember a whole lot when they would come visit us (Granny and Papa stopped visiting us in 2004 since it was getting harder for them to) but I do remember lots of fun times when we would go visit them. I can still hear Granny's voice saying, "Ohhh look at you!" whenever we would go visit them.
Since Granny had a problem with her back she wasn't able to do a lot. She would sit in her chair a lot and do different things...a crossword puzzle, calling Mom, writing letters, reading her Bible, etc. I decided one day way back in 2010 that I would start writing Granny and Papa letters since I figured it would cheer Granny up a little bit to have something to look forward to. So I started writing them letters every week and there were so many times when Granny would tell me how much she enjoyed getting my letters. At her funeral we all could put something into her casket that was special between her and you. I found one of my letters and wrote a note to her at the bottom and then I put that into her casket.
When I was thinking about this post I thought that I would do a super brief summary about everything that happened, but then I thought, "That probably won't happen." So I decided to write down what happened everyday just because I want to remember. So brace yourself for a very long post. :)
Sunday Dec. 29, 2013
Dad called Granny and Papa like he usually does on a Sunday afternoon/evening. When he got off the phone he came downstairs and said, "Granny isn't doing well. Papa even said that."
It scared me a little bit to hear that but I didn't think to hard about it....Granny hadn't been doing well recently and nothing serious had happened yet. What could happen? So I went on with my evening...not thinking to hard about it but at the same time worried a little that Papa had said she wasn't doing well.
Monday Dec. 30, 2013. 12:00 PM.
The phone rang and Emily answered it. I couldn't figure out who she was talking to though. She talked for a little, tiny bit and then she said, "Oh no. Is she not doing good?" I was standing right there and right away I figured it had to be Papa. She continued to talk and I knew something bad was happening. She got off the phone and said, "That was Uncle Greg. He said that Granny is in the hospital and she has pneumonia." She kept telling us what Uncle Greg had said..."Granny called 911 and the ambulance came and now she is in the hospital. The doctors said that she will be able to go home in about 3 days though."
Dad came home from doing some errands and said that Uncle Greg had called him as well. He thought that he should probably head down there right away, but we decided to wait for a little. We got several more phone calls that day from Uncle Greg. We found out that Uncle Greg, Aunt Vicki, and Kyle had gone down and they had packed their suits just to be prepared.
Tuesday Dec. 31, 2013. Tuesday
Dad woke up and told us that he wanted to go down there that day. He said he would take Emily and then I decided that I would skip the New Years party that we were invited to and go. I quickly feed the chickens and packed my backpack. We decided that Dad and Mom and all the girls would go down. We left around 11:00. On the way down we stopped at our hotel that we were staying at that night to get our room. Then we headed down to the Richland hospital. We got into the hospital and asked the lady where Merle Arnhart was. She told us where 'he' was (when Granny was born her Mom had really wanted a boy and since she got a girl instead her mom decided that she would name her a boys name...poor Granny..) We got onto the elevator and met Uncle Greg and Aunt Vicki at the top. Aunt Vicki was crying and I thought, "Wow, there is going to be lots of crying this trip." We gave hugs and headed into Granny's room. She was laying there in her bed and looked so different. Pretty soon Papa came walking in and when Dad was hugging him I couldn't help but start crying. Then my only-cousin-on-that-side, Kyle came walking in. I was excited to see him since I hadn't since March of 2010. Anyways, we stayed in that room for quite awhile. We cried alot, sang Granny some songs, and Janeal and Dad read some of the Bible to her. Janeal and Granny were reading the Bible-in-a-year plan together and when Janeal had gone to visit in Sept. Granny had said, "Why don't we read it together?" So they did. Well, Janeal got to read the last chapter to Granny and I think that was really special for her. It was the last chapter in Revelations and it talks alot about Heaven and what it will be like. I was crying a lot during that. The whole time Granny was sleeping and not talking but she could hear us. Soon the nurse came in and said that she was going to send all of us out so we started walking out w except Kyle stayed behind to hold her hand. I wasn't in the room but I guess Granny opened her eyes and said, "Why are you crying, Kyle?" and she started crying as well. Aunt Vicki came out and told us that she was talking so we all came back in. Dad went over to her right away and she was happy to see him. She saw me and her eyes got real big and she sort of smiled but right then Mom came up and started talking to her. It was probably a good thing because I always would start crying whenever I would try to talk to her. Not hard crying...just teary eyes and my throat had that thing in it...you know? We all talked with her. It was hard to understand her though. She one time even said, "Why can't I talk better?" We sang her a hymn and she liked that. She would start mouthing the words to some of them. Soon the nurse came in and we waited outside for her to get done. After awhile the girls and Mom had some snacks and we just all hung out in the hospital room. After saying, "See ya next year!" to everyone, we headed back to our hotel.
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| Us singing to Granny |
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| Janeal reading the Bible to her |
Wednesday Jan. 1, 2014.
I woke up with the flu. Ohh man. I was soo sad and miserable. I had gotten it around 5 in the morning I think. I just had a feeling that something like that would happened because Tommy had some kind of bug on Sunday. We talked about what to do and Dad called Uncle Greg to tell him I was sick. Uncle Greg thought it would be best to go home and see what happens. After several phone calls to Michael and Uncle Greg we decided that the boys would quickly go down to the hospital and we would go home. We got ready to go and I went walking out...probably one of the worst things to do. I looked terrible and I was in my PJ's and coat. I tried to hide between the girls and walk as fast as I could out of there. haha...poor people who had to see me. I got the front seat and I slept for awhile. I was super thirsty but I couldn't drink water because it just wouldn't seem to stay down. I once told Dad that I wanted to drink all my water and then drink a bottle of Gatorade and then jump into that lake. Wow...really Caroline? Dad told me he would get me some ice at the pass so we stopped in there. I stayed in the car while the girls went into the bathroom and when they came back out they stood outside the car. Pretty soon they got all excited and said, "There are the boys!!" and started waving. So isn't that funny? We met the boys on the pass! They were in and out of there so fast...(they just had to make record time getting to Benton City...I think they made it a little under 4 1/2 hours while it usually takes us about 5 hours. hmmmm) Anyways, Dad got me some ice and after awhile I told him that I would love some Gatorade with that ice so he stopped and bought me some. That really hit the spot. It was soo good. We got home and I slept some more and went to bed.
Thursday Jan. 2, 2014.
I woke up and went downstairs. I felt way better but still wanted to take it easy. I ate a little food that day but for the most part I felt fine! I wasn't all dizzy/weak for the lack of food the day before so that was good. I worked on my End of the Year project ;) and did other things. Dad went to work but I think it was a long day for him. I thought and even told Janeal how bad I felt for getting the flu and having to have Dad come all the way home just for me. She told me that it was God's plan that that happened and I couldn't have helped it at all. That evening Mom and Janeal went to Costco to get food and I got some pictures together of Granny. We decided that Dad would take his truck down there in the morning because he wanted to be there.
Friday Jan. 3, 2014. 3:55 a.m.
The phone rang. Emily, Janeal, and I all woke up. I knew right now that this was it. We all piled into Dad and Mom's room and Dad got off the phone and said, "Well, girls, Granny isn't in pain anymore. Uncle Greg got up to fix her mask on her face and he knew something wasn't right." We all headed back to bed and the phone rang again..this time it was Michael asking Dad to say a group prayer since they had all gone over there. I fell back asleep and woke up a few hours later. I figured that we might be going. I was going to wake up a feed the chickens like I usually do but then I thought, "We got to get nice clothes for the boys for the funeral!" So I decided I would call the boys really fast and have them tell me what they needed and then go out to the chickens. I called Michael and he told me fairly fast of everything he wanted. Then Tommy got on the phone. Well, he took a bit longer. But, he was nice and specific because he would tell me stuff like, "Okay, I need my nice black belt that's on the tan hanger." Haha, he knew what belt was on what hanger. That was a little bit funny. :) William got on next and by that time Mom had fed the chickens for me and was getting ready to go herself. It took awhile but we soon figured out everything we had to bring and then we packed, made some phone calls for someone to take care of the animals and one to Dad's old boss asking him if we could borrow his trailer, got some food together, typed out instructions for the animals, etc. We finally hit the road around 12:30. The trip down went by fast and in no time we were there. I got out of the car and went running inside the house. Uncle Greg, Kyle, and William were sitting on the couch and William said, "Uh-oh. Watch out!! Don't get near her!" I had almost forgotten that I had the flu. Soon the other people came in and we gave more hugs and people asked me if I felt better. Right away Tommy and Kyle left to make some pictures into files so we could use them in the slideshow. I ran out to the car to get my pictures that I had brought so I was glad I was able to help! We sat around after that....I had a little something to eat and then Aunt Vicki told us about that morning. As she was talking she said, "It worked out so well. Caroline should never have blamed herself for getting sick because if she wouldn't have then the boys wouldn't have been able to spent that time with Papa." That made me feel better because I was blaming myself. Pretty soon Kyle called and told Aunt Vicki that we needed to get some songs for the slideshow so we (Emily, William, Aunt Vicki, and I) worked on that. It took us a while to figure it out but we finally decided. That evening we didn't do a lot. We headed to bed....you must remember now that the girls and Mom and Dad had the trailer to sleep in. Janeal and Emily got a little bed and I got a nice bed because I got it all to myself. ;) We had a little heater and I had a few blankets and we settled into bed. Of course we talked for awhile and Dad (even though he was in the other room) talked for a long time. That night I remember half waking up and thinking, "I am f.r.e.e.z.i.n.g." and tried to get warmer.
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| Uncle Greg, Papa, and Dad. |
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| Janeal arranging some pictures |
Sat. Jan. 4, 2014
I woke up around 7:30 and was still freezing so I wrapped a big blanket around me and ran into the house. I had to use the bathroom and when I got into the bathroom I was like, "I think I'll just stay here forever." It was soo warm and toasty in there! I went back out to the trailer and read my Bible and got my clothes on. I went into the house and we sat around...had some breakfast...and sat around some more. Haha. I took my shower and then I got some pictures to find some more to put on those picture frame thingys. While I was doing that, Aunt Vicki and the other girls were talking about how they were going to look at flowers and then go to the funeral place to fix up Granny. I asked them if I could come and they said they would take me so I scrambled around, trying to fix my hair fast and get ready. Janeal, Emily, Aunt Vicki, and I got into Aunt Vicki's car and headed over to Fred Meyer. We got some make-up for Granny and I picked out some nail polish. Then Aunt Vicki had to get some socks for Granny and she told us to look for whatever we wanted and she would get it for us. I found a yellow scarf and Emily found a different scarf so we got that. :) After that we drove over to the flower shop to look at what they had. It took us a while but we finally figured out what we wanted. After that we headed over to the funeral place and met Kyle, William, Tommy, and Michael and then a few minutes later Dad, Uncle Greg, Mom, and Papa got there. We had to go sign some papers and figure out what headstone to get for Granny. That took awhile because the guy helping us was having difficulties. I think it was an hour before we got out of there but when we did we had to figure out who was going where and what we were going to do. I was going to go home and I was sad because I really wanted to go paint Granny's nails. (Uncle Greg, Aunt Vicki, Kyle, and Emily were going over to make Granny look nice and they were going to paint her nails) I told Mom that I would really like to paint her nails and then she asked Aunt Vicki what she thought of that and then we figured out that I could go with them and paint her nails when they were done! I was excited about that because when we went in May I painted her nails and she was so happy! She kept on saying, "My nails are so pretty!" Mom, Michael, Janeal, William, and Tommy went home while the other people headed over to a different building where Granny was in. While the guys signed some papers, Aunt Vicki, Emily, and I looked around in the building at some of the different caskets and stuff like that. After awhile they went into the room to paint her nails and I waited outside with Papa and Dad. I read my book but I was a little nervous about doing her nails. I can't remember who came to get me but I remember I walked into the room and I was surprised at how she looked. She looked pretty....she was in a white jacket thing and her makeup looked good on her. I painted her nails while Kyle and Emily watched and once they were dry, Uncle Greg, Kyle, and a funeral guy carried her to her casket. I cried a little since Kyle and Emily were crying but I was okay. Then we all left and Dad and Papa went in there to say good bye. They came out crying and I started getting teary-eyed again. We went out to the parking lot and Dad, Uncle Greg, and Papa went back home while the rest of us went shopping. We had to get some stuff at Fred Meyer and then go buy Papa a new shirt. We got the shirt at the mall and Aunt Vicki bought us some dinner. I didn't want clam chowder though so I just ate some french fries. We got home and hung out. Dad and Uncle Greg decided to have a competition and see who could do a plank the longest so that was fun to watch. Uncle Greg won that one. Tommy thought that they should arm wrestle but Dad nor Uncle Greg liked that. The rest of the time we were there whenever Tommy would say, "Uncle Greg! You and Dad should arm wrestle!" He would say, "Okay so we've got Tommy, Michael, Kyle, and William for the pallbearers.." He would always change the subject and that was kind of funny. That night we got another heater and more blankets so I was warm that night. :)
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| This was typical when we were there...just hanging out |
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| Our trailer that we borrowed |
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| This was also a typical dinner. Just grab whatever and eat whenever. I don't know that we ever had a full sit down meal with everyone.. |
Sunday Jan. 5, 2014
I woke up feeling refreshed. I did my normal stuff and then ate breakfast. I think William made the breakfast that morning and a lot of us ate. After that I waited for my turn in the shower and while I waited I got some big, orange envelopes that I had found in Papa's room and took all of the content out envelope by envelope. I knew that my letters were inside so I started organizing them...2010, 2011, 2012, and one of 2013. I'm not sure where Granny kept my 2013 letters but it was fun seeing all those letters.
I decided that I should probably stop organizing my letters and get ready for church because it was time to leave soon. I quickly took my shower and did my hair. We headed to church....it was interesting...anyways...we got home and Kyle took off to have lunch with his Grandpa. Aunt Vicki was shopping for something for the funeral and the rest of us had lunch. We laughed alot during that lunch. It was funny. Like one time (Tommy and Uncle Greg were sitting across from each other at the end of the table) Tommy said, "Uncle Greg, am I the head of the table or are you?" We all laughed at that because that was a sorta weird question. haha. After lunch I played some games on Emily's ipad and after awhile Kyle came home. We hung out for a little bit and I kept saying that we should go up to the mountain. We headed up to the mountain and at the beginning of the mountain road William, Kyle, Emily, and I hopped into the back of the truck. It was freeeeezing on top of the mountain so we headed down pretty fast. We did take a picture though.
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| This picture was suppose to be darker but blogger is being weird. Anyways from left to right: Tommy, Kyle, Me Janeal, William, Emily, Michael. :) |
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| Getting a pile of stuff ready for the funeral. |
I came into the house and was sitting talking with some of the peoples when I heard a knock on the door. I figured it was just Kyle knocking on his Mom's room because he had just went back there. William, who was making breakfast, said, "What was that?" I told him, "Umm, I think it was Kyle." William told me he thought it was Doyle but I was pretty sure it couldn't be. Pretty soon we heard another knocking and William was like, "That was Doyle." and went to open the door. Whoops! He came in and started talking and I...well, I forgot what I did. I think I may have listened to him while eating M&Ms....no wait. I remember. I was working on my over 1000 dot-to-dot! And I was eating M&M's so I got that part right at least. (Aunt Vicki had bought some the day before and they were just sitting on the counter...we ate them kind of fast. I went into take my shower while everyone else ate and when I got out, I ate a little something as well. After breakfast most of the kids went into the living room to chill and watch Kyle drink another Mt. Dew. Mom and Tommy were planning on going shopping to Kohls to get some clothes for the viewing in the night and for some for the funeral the next day. I decided to join and we headed over to Kohls. There was a clearance sale in the junior section and I found a nice blouse sort of thing for the funeral and then another shirt for just whatever. We got home and I had some lunch, ate a little something off the the meals platters we had gotten from Aunt Vicki's work. I was just about to watch an Andy Griffith when William, Kyle, Janeal, Emily, and Michael got home from the funeral place. Some of us decided to watch a movie (I had watched it the last time I came) and after awhile I got a little bored of it so I went to the kitchen to paint my nails. Emily came out and wanted her nails painted as well so Kyle offered to paint them and it was kinda funny. He did an okay job though. I quickly got my nicer outfit on and we all headed out to the funeral place for the viewing. Granny still looked good and it was along 2 hours of looking at Granny and crying, drying your eyes, walking around a little, go back and cry again. Something that really made me cry was when Papa bent down and kissed her and said, "I love you sweetie," but not getting the whole sweetie out because he was crying. I find that I will cry harder when other people are crying that you never see cry....so that one really got me. We finally headed home and sat around the table and talked. I think we might have played another game of uno. We headed out to our R.V. and rested for the next day.
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| Kyle painting Emily's nails. |
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| Uncle Greg, Aunt Vicki, and Kyle |
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| The two brothers looking at their Mom |
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| All the grandson (except for Zach) and Papa |
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| I was so happy to be wearing Granny's ring. It was just so pretty |
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| Tommy and Kyle were hams that whole trip. |
Tuesday Jan. 7, 2014
I woke up and took my shower early so it could have time to dry. I had some breakfast and sat around...waiting to have my hair straightened. Once it was straightened I put on my nice clothes and once again we headed out to the funeral place. The kids went early to practice singing out song that we were going to sing. I walked around....looked at the displays and waited for the funeral to start. The pastor opened it up with a verse and reading of the obituary. Right after he was done Michael, Emily, Janeal, William, Tommy, and I all went up front to sing I Need Thee Every Hour. I looked at my music the whole time because I knew that if I looked up and saw Papa crying, I would probably lose it as well. Thankfully I didn't and we returned to our seats. Dad went up next and talked a little bit about Granny. That part was sad. And everything else happened. We sang another song, watched the slideshow, had some people talk about what they remember about Granny, and the Pastor gave a short message. After that everyone could go look at Granny if they wanted to but not a lot of people did. Once everyone was gone, the family got one last good bye. There was lots of crying and the funeral people came and closed it. That was the last time I would see Granny. They put her in the car and drove her to her spot. I walked over there and it was a little hard in my heels and it was freezing outside. Only a few people came out to watch. The pallbearers brought her over and then the worker did something and started lowering her in. We all watched in silence except for Claire (Aunt Vicki's granddaughter) saying, "Mommy, why is she going down there? What are they doing to her?" When she was lowered everyone had a rose that we dropped down on top of her grave. We all started walking back. When we got back inside, we got some food and ate. I sat with a few different people (they would come and go to different tables) but it was fun sitting with them. We got home and hung around...I played games on Emily's ipad and some of us looked at pictures while eating a chocolate bar. Then Mom and Dad went into town to get some food and the kids decided to go to the Country Buffet to get something to eat and then go bowling. We headed over and all got our food. I had some really good mashed potatoes with gravy. Mmmmm, they were good. We had fun talking and then we headed over to the bowling ally. We got there and it was packed! We asked the lady when we could do it and she said, "About an hour." We decided to leave. While we were going home, we stopped at Fred Meyer to get a game to play at home (instead of uno!) and we bought Balderdash. We got home and started playing it and I don't know if I have ever laughed so hard and so much as I did while we were playing it. We all played it and it was hilarious. For example (those of you who have played this game will understand) we had a name that was Johnny Strange and we were suppose to write down what this dude did. So we all put everything in and Tommy started reading them off. When he got to Kyle's it said, "Mr. Johnny Strange." We all cracked up because Kyle wasn't really putting his full effort into it. Another time we had to explain a movie called, The Secret Face. William put in, "Ugly dude finds a GF and marries her." we all laughed kinda hard at that one. There were some really funny ones in there. After that we all headed to bed. In the trailer the girls and I all laughed again at how funny Kyle's things were in Balderdash.
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| Granny had this sweatshirt that I now have! They let me keep it |
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| Granny got a lot of little things placed everywhere in her casket. |
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| Dad and his cousins. From left to right: Papa, Dad, Linda, Phil Doyle, Marlene, and Uncle Greg. |
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| grandkid picture |
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| The boys...I told them to do a serious face and right before I clicked the picture I said, "Kyle, that's not a serious face!" that why all of them are so happy looking. |
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| William and Papa |
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| Notice the lipstick on his cheek? |
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| playing balderdash |
Wednesday Jan. 8, 2014
I woke up and packed a few things. We had some breakfast and cleaned up the trailer and put stuff in the cars. Michael, Emily, Janeal, and William all said good bye and hit the road and then the rest of us said good bye as well. We got home around 4 and it was freezing inside the house. I would run inside and come running back out saying, "Its so warm outside!" The floor was super cold as well. I had to go outside to change the chicken straw and then pick up everything that Sparky had wrecked while we were gone. We had dinner in the family room and talked about our trip.
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Whew! That was a long post. If you guys made it this far then you go reward yourself with a cookie or something, okay? If you didn't make it this far than that's okay. :) Now that I got this out, I will defiantly be posting more often. :)
P.S. sorry if there are a few mistakes...I didn't really read it over
I'm crying right now. That was so sweet. I love the funny parts. I grew up playing balderdash. I love that game! Still praying for you guys :)
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