Keep Wendell and Angel

ok..but why?...whats going on?

It was in reference to a post on his fb page.

🙁 :'( :u: Our beloved awesome sweet not-a-mean-bone-in-her-body Grandma Oma is dying. Hospice is with her. We just found out a few hours ago. Wendell's taking it a lot better than I am. I am very close with her and just the thought of ANYONE hurting her like before, or not taking care of her properly kills me!!! 🙁 :u:

Our thoughts and prayers are with you all.

Wendell and Angel, My prayers for your grandma Oma. If she is in hospice, her time is near. May she pass in peace, and may you and your family celebrate and honor her life best you can. God Bless you all.

Never EVER give up.
I never gave up on my Mom.
I know I'm repeating for those who already know the story... she had lung cancer and pancreatic cancer at the same time. A sure death sentence and she told me so.

Lo and behold she survived both and is alive and well now.
The power of prayer is awesome. I begged the Lord to take me instead of her.
She has grand-kids - I have no kids. I just couldn't imagine my nephews and nieces without "grandma". My only concern was to who would take care of my cats.

Total selflessness. I would happily give up a lung or my pancreas to save my Mom. Giving up my pancreas would have meant my death. No matter. I have no kids. I'm only that "unknown uncle" to her grandkids. I got no problem with that and no hesitation should she need a lung or pancreas. They are her's to have.

I remember the night I got the news. Most shocking to say the least. It's the only time me and my baby brother cried like hell (over the phone). I remember begging the Lord to "take me now that my Mother may live". I was near about pancaked to the floor in total humility (as well I should be).

Mom's first biopsy was the day before Christmas 2 years ago. It was not good. Mom's words were "merry f..ing Christmas huh?!". All I could say was "I reckon so" ckoking that down.

Point is..... NEVER EVER EVER GIVE UP!!!!!
Never ever ever give up hope. Miracles can and do happen. Trust me on this one.
My thoughts and prayers have already been sent out.
E.

Thanks, Kris, and everyone else who sent well-wishes. We are hopeful and apparently she actually is up this morning for breakfast. That is good news.

That's good to hear Wendell. We'll keep the prayers coming from East Texas.

Thanks, E. She's a very strong person. She's 93, going on 94 in February (I may be off a year or so here) and still amazing in my eyes. She has been married three times and saw each one pass on after caring for them for their various health problems (heart problems, colon cancer and Parkinson's, respectively). She's survived elderly abuse (several years ago) multiple times and two big moves around the same general time. I won't go into to too much detail with that, but let's just say she experienced total hell and chaos for a couple years before my wife and I got wind of what was going on and "broke her out of jail".

She is the epitome of the sweet, loving, caring, considerate, apple-pie-making Grandma that we read about in fairy tales. When I was in high school, I would walk to her house for lunch and she would make me an open-face egg salad sandwich with homegrown strawberries on the side and a glass of milk. Once a month on Saturday mornings, she would make batch after batch of her homemade buttermilk biscuits served with her homemade strawberry preserves for a breakfast at her church. Of course, as her Grandson, I got to experience that more often. 😉

If you need to get something off your chest, she is very consoling and soothing in her reactions and responses. She finds the positive in everything. She's very sweet and innocent, almost to a fault, and people will take advantage of her. She was raised on a farm in Arkansas without any formal schooling, other than what her Daddy taught her. Her Mother died giving birth to a sibling, so Grandma was left with raising her sisters at a very young age. By the time I got to experience her love, she was a pro. A pro at being awesome.

I don't see her a lot these days because we live so far apart. But I know she is with me every day and I think of her constantly. When I do see or talk to her, we always talk about how we know we are with each other in spirit even if we are not there physically. That means the most to me.

So yeah, it hurts to know she is hurting and in need of assistance. She's very independent and wants to do everything for herself. When we visit, it's obvious that she is uncomfortable with having us do things for her (but once we get her used to the idea, she makes a list LOL). But now it seems she needs even more than that.

But, as she always says to me, "I have lived a long and wonderful life. When it's my time to go, the Lord will take me." She knows where she is going and is very comfortable and ready. We may not share the same beliefs, but what makes me admire her so much is her determination and dedication to her belief. The same can be said for her feelings toward her family.

It makes me tear up just reading what you wrote, pea. (Wendell's nickname):-(

Forgive me all for feeling the anger, sorrow and hurt I feel when the elderly abuse is mentioned. It's one thing to hurt me directly, but it is another thing to inflict horrendous torture and abuse on someone that I love to pieces and who cannot defend herself! My heart hurts tenfold. :u:

I don't talk about it much because of this very reason. Grandma MADE both of us promise not to call the cops or beat anyone up before she finally told us what was going on, and it was a good thing she did because after I found out what had been happening to her, I was LIVID. The situation was BEYOND imaginable!! (Insert bad word here) I am glad she trusted us enough, though, to tell us and have us be there with her to protect her from any further abuse because the "abusers" goal was to have grandma die. I don't understand how some people can be so evil and cruel. 🙁

She is 91. 92 in March. For her 90th birthday a remembrance book was put together. My favorite memory and addition was as follows:

I had a footless rat named Stubs. Some idiot had chopped off his back feet and left him for dead. Anyhow, I took him in and nursed him back to health. Well, with him being footless and needing extra care, I would take him almost everywhere I went, and that included our Vegas visits to Grandmas house. Grandma wasn't too fond of the rats we had brought on previous trips but this rat she seemed to take a liking too because of his handicap. We caught her baby talking to him a few times when she'd walk by his cage. "Hey little guy, grandma has a hard time walking too. I wish I had a pair of ratty crutches for you. Do you want grandma to knit you some booties??"

She was serious about the booties. She sat me down and told me he needed booties to cover his stubs because his stubs were probably cold and so she was going to get busy knitting. I told her "Grandma, he will just take them off! Rats don't like stuff on them." Grandmas solution?? Put rubber bands on Stubs booties!! 😛 I finally convinced her he'd rip them off so she knitted him a blankie instead. 🙂 (Damn rat got a blankie and I didn't!) 😛

We kept a can of Yogies (rat yogurt drops) nearby and when one of us would walk by his cage or take him out we'd slip Stubs a yogie or two. Grandma felt we were cheaping out on Stubs by only giving 2 yogies. We told her that they are just treats and we didn't want him to get spoiled on them. Well, grandma baby talked to Stubs about us "cheaping out" on him and that she'd "take care" of him. It was quite hilarious listening to this convo.

Grandma offered to "watch" him one night while we went out to the casino. Well the Yogie can was empty and the new one wasn't opened yet so I wasn't too worried about her over stuffing Stubs with treats. We got back at about 3 am to find a VERY stuffed rat and an opened and ½ empty Yogie can!! When I asked her about it she nonchalantly said "Oh but I kept walking by and talking to him and he kept putting his hands out begging for a treat and I felt so bad that I opened the new can and gave him as much as he wanted." With that sweet innocent look on her face, who could be upset?? I know Stubs wasn't!! 🙂