Approximately 9:00 pm, Friday, 4/4/08, my mother passed away quitely at home.  Mom was 97 and, until she took two falls at assisted living in late October of last year, was doing pretty well for her years.  She moved back home with us from the skilled nursing center with doctor's orders for hospice care on 3/27/08.  I'm finalizing funeral arrangements and other odds and ends over the next several days.

 

Hospice made her final days as comfortable as possible by relieving us of many tasks so that we could carry-on with preparations (as much as one can do this).  The thing that finally got her was the arthritis that she had fought for so many years.  When she fell, she gradually lost her mobility, and the arthritis took over to render her more immobile and causing her great pain.  We were able to control the pain, but it was a steady decline from the first of the year onwards.

 

 

 

Mom, Agnes, on left; Joan on right, at mom's 94 birthday part in 2004.