Hospice

The End Is Near


A little over a week ago I mentioned here on this blog that my Paternal Grandmother was hospitalized in serious condition. The response I received in comments and E-mails was overwhelming, and my family even had a glimmer of hope when she improved slightly and was moved out of intensive care that she would be able to beat the odds yet again.

I received word last night that that was not to be the case.

My grandmother in fact has a living will, along with the other necessary documents allowing her to choose further medical intervention, and as of yesterday she has elected to refuse additional efforts to provide nutrition.

It’s just a matter of time now—one to two weeks under the care of hospice personnel.

It’s hard for me to accept, but it’s her decision.

My Grandmother Rogers was and is an amazing woman. Born in 1913 in eastern Kentucky outside the coal mining community of Grayson, she left high school to marry and raise my father and two uncles after relocating to Boone County West Virginia.

Grandma worked hard to elevate herself and my family above the squalor and ignorance common in the 1930’s and 1940’s in the coal mining “camps” of Appalachia. They started out in a two room house with no indoor plumbing, but before retiring to central Florida in the mid 1970’s she and my Grandfather managed to earn enough money to own the only brick house in the town of Prenter, WV.

After raising her family, she returned to high school at the age of 42 to receive her own diploma. When I last saw her healthy this winter she was talking about attending her 50th high school reunion this summer. I’m sorry that she won’t make that milestone.

Her oldest son, my father, was the first person in our branch of the Rogers family to graduate from college when he received a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Kentucky. Both of his brothers followed suit with degrees of their choice.

My sister and I were the first of our generation to graduate from college, and I believe that my sister is the first with a post graduate degree—an MBA from Emory University in Atlanta.

We’ve all worked hard in our own right to attain our individual successes, but none of us would be where we are today without our little 5 foot tall firebrand--Grandmama Rogers.

I hope the end comes quickly and peacefully.

I’m going miss her.