The Phone Call

For the past several months, we had seen a slow decline in the health of Sue’s mother, so it was not surprising to receive a phone call near the end of March, recommending that Sue place her mother into hospice care.  We began making preparations to spend a week or two or three in Chattanooga.

March 27, Sue got the dreaded phone call, but it came from Orlando instead, to say that her brother had died during the night!  We dropped everything, closed up the boat, & drove immediately down to Orlando.  On the way, we spent the night at boating friends Ken & Betsy’s winter home in Dunnellon.  In Orlando the next day, we took care of funeral arrangements early before going to the brother’s house to begin going through things.

Within an hour of arriving at the house, Sue gets another phone call from Chattanooga to say that her mother has taken a turn for the worse, and Sue should come immediately, if not sooner.  We drop everything; I drive Sue directly to Orlando airport, and put her on a plane to Chattanooga with only the clothes on her back & a credit card in her pocket.  Sue makes it to her mother’s bedside to spend the last 18 hours with her.  I drive back to Ken & Betsy’s to pack up our suitcases, then drive to TN.

The next two months are filled with activities which we all hate to go through, only they were multiplied by two for Sue.  In case that wasn’t enough to handle, Sue was still dealing with her uncle’s estate from over a year ago in Ohio.  The family all came together nicely for a joint funeral service (which the funeral home said they had never done before), and burial in Selma AL where 6 other of Sue’s relatives are interred.  Of note, the ashes of Sue’s sister had been kept by Sue’s nephews for about 12 years, but were laid in Selma next to her younger brother’s ashes, all above the casket of her older brother.  So, on one memorable day, Sue buried her mother, her brother, and her sister.

A sad time, indeed.