GOOD-BYE MOM...after eighty-two years on earth, my mom passed on to heaven tonight at about 10:45 PM EST. Those are the raw facts. I said my good-byes when I visited there in October with my brother and sisters. I didn't expect to see her alive again after that visit even though my youngest sister and I had plans to meet in FL for Easter weekend and the week after to visit my mom. God had other plans. This past Thursday, she appeared to be at death's door and totally unresponsive. On Friday, she woke up, opened her eyes and even though she couldn't swallow well or respond to commands, or even talk, she was following people across the room with her eyes and trying to talk. That lasted for a day and a half and then she went rapidly downhill this afternoon. Some close friends were with her and read scripture to her and prayed with her in her last hours. Other friends were with Carl and helped him to the nursing home so he could be with Mom awhile during her final hours.
We are now making plans for either a Tues. or Wed. funeral (depending on when Kathy can get here from Amsterdam) at Penney Farms Retirement Center. It is about an hour from Jacksonville, FL.

But just think of stepping on shore and finding it heaven;
Of touching a hand and finding it God's;
Of breathing new air and finding it celestial;
Of waking up in glory and finding it home!
(Don Wyrtzen...thanks Dyan!)

Thanks for your prayers for our family and for Carl as we make this new adjustment. We will be having a family burial service sometime this summer in Waynesboro, Virginia. (She will be cremated and buried next to my father.)