Pulling into the station

November 21, 2003

I anxiously waited for 4:30 on Wednesday, hopped in my little red putt-putt and zooma-zooma'ed off to O-Town. I anticipated traffic up and down the freeways, so I was a little shocked to find that I had more than enough time to spare when I got to Oakland. I went to my dad's house - he was sick, so I talked to Sandra for a while instead and grabbed these books my mom asked for. Hit Old Navy, got a skirt and some shirts (Dad lives conveniently close to the Old Navy Outlet store). Went to 7-11, got drinks. Then off to the airport. I made four (or five?) laps around the terminals and finally spotted G. I pulled off to the curb and some taxi honked at me. Oh, yeah, it was a taxi-only lane. Bastards, takin' the good spots. Anyways.

We hustled to the hospital and into the ICU. I went in for a little bit, then bowed out to the waiting room. Someone came and got me from the waiting room after a few minutes, though.

While G's plane was en route, Gramma had taken a turn for the worse. When we got there, everyone was saying how they kept telling Gramma to hold on, G would be there in four hours, in three, two... she's on the way from the airport, hold on... And she did. Thank God. She was in a coma by the time we got there, though, but I think she knew that G was there at last. Everyone gave them some time alone so G could say her goodbyes. Everyone trickled back in after a few minutes, though, including me. Once everyone had said their final goodbyes, G's mom had the staff pull the plug, if you will. (On a side note, there is no "plug" to pull. I always thought they literally pulled the electrical chord out of the wall and cut the power to the machines. No, pulling the plug means they take out the ventillator, the oxygen, etc. Hmm.) The nurse was pretty gentle and even cleaned the bandage goop off of Gramma. She looked like she was just sleeping. That was at about 9:30 pm.

We stayed there, at her bedside - I left to pee once. (The bathroom smelled like Chicken Cup-o-Noodles. Odd.) Note that I mentioned before that these women are stubborn? Yeah. Gramma held on for two and a half hours. The nurses said it would probably take only about 10 minutes or so in her state. Obviously they had never dealt with one of these gals. She held on until just after midnight. She was on the downside, in her final minutes when G's mom had to go to the bathroom (I think that's where she went) and everytime Gramma would take a breath, I'd pray that she'd take another one because Judith would kick herslef if she wasn't there. G, her mom, her aunt and uncle, and I were in the room, holding onto Gramma when she took her last breath.

I'm very sad to see her gone now, but I know that she's in a place where she's not suffering anymore. And I know - cliche as this is - that she's still around, watching over everyone from up there. And I know that if someone does something stupid, she's going to use her newfound angel leg and give 'em a swift kick upside the head. (A*hem, some people should already be getting those, but that's a different story.)

** ** **

I took G and her mom home, promising that I'd be coming back down tonight. (Which I am, leaving right from work.) Due to the fact that it was now 1 o'clock in the morning, I drove to mom's (a few blocks away) and called her to unlock the front door. I fell asleep after tossing around for a bit and woke up every other hour. I finally gave up at about 8:30 and started getting dressed and stuff. Boyfriend had said that he would get up and go in to cover my morning shift, I wasn't to drive home until I wasn't tired anymore. (Ha, I'm STILL tired, maybe I should go home now...) I got home around noonish and took a cat-nap. Then I ordered up pizza for lunch because in the whirlwind of the previous night, I hadn't stopped to eat anything. After everyone left to go back to work, I curled up to watch a little Trash TV and ended up sleeping for a long time.

Avoiding people was my objective, but dammit, I ran to my car to grab a CD and ended up talking to four neighbors. Gah! We weren't the only apartment to have a vehicle broken into lately - a whole bunch of people have had their stuff stolen in the past couple of months. Me thinks we have a problem on our hands. Again, that's another story.

I called G and talked to her for a couple hours (I think, I wasn't paying attention to the time). Hopefully she got some sleep last night / this morning. I'm taking her to 7-11 for a good ol' Slurpee tonight and then we're going to watch some movies. I grabbed "No One Can Hear You" (wooohahahahahaha!) because we love it so and we think her mom needs to laugh at it with us, maybe. I think we're going to Wal*mart, too, seeing as how *someone* forgot to grab a couple of essentials when she packed. (Well, she was in a bit of a hurry. Duh.)

So, people, I'm probably going to go AWOL for the entire weekend. Hope you all stay sane... I mean safe. (If you're reading this diary, I know for a fact that you're not sane.)

Send your thoughts and prayers this a-way and I'll forward them on. And people, don't forget to tell your grandfolks that you love them, okay? I'm sure they already know, but remind them anyways.

(Damn coffee... FOUR shots of espresso and what does it get me? Multiple trips to the bathroom, but no caffine buzz. DAMN!)

Saying Goodbye is Never Easy stopped here at 10:30 a.m.

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