Gee

In loving memory of Evelyn “LaVern” McDonald, or known by me as Gee.

Date of Birth
December 9, 1923 in Talpa, TX
Date of Death
October 19, 2009 in Plano, TX

Gee called me on Sunday and said she needed me to come over and I said “what’s wrong” and she said “I can’t get up and I can’t get down and they want me to go the hospital but I just want you to come over here”. So I told her I had been out in the barn with the horses so I needed to change clothes and I would head that way then she says “well make sure you put your face on before you come up here”. LOL I called Wilson and told him I was going over there but it wasn’t anything serious because she is concerned about my hair and make up. Then when I got there she was just sitting in her wheelchair and needed me to help her get dressed. She went to the bathroom and brushed her hair and then said she needed to go to the ER. I said why didn’t you let them take you earlier when they wanted too and she said “because if they (meaning her apartment) call for me the ambulance will come and get me and they will make me stay but if you take me they will just give me some medicine and let me come home”. I said “that’s not really how it works but load up”.
Well I had the rental truck because someone hit Wilson and totaled my Maroon F-150. We had already bought Wilson a new truck but I still had the rental and it was brand new so why not drive it. Well the rental didn’t have step sides on it so we couldn’t get her in the truck so she said “call the paramedics”. I called them and they came to get her. While they were helping her from her wheel chair to the stretcher a lady from the lunchroom came walking by with Gee’s lunch. Since she didn’t come down for breakfast and then didn’t come down for lunch they were going to bring it to her. Well Gee see’s the lunch room lady and says “is that my lunch” and the lady said “yes” and was were concerned about Gee but Gee looks at her and says “now I’m going to the Emergency Room and won’t be here for that lunch so you make sure I’m not charged for that”. LOL
This with the “put your face on” comment made me even more believe she was fine but I guess she was just being Gee.
We got to the hospital and she said she had an upset stomach and just wasn’t feeling well. They ran all kinds of tests and during all of this determined that she had a urinary tract infection, which we already knew, but the reason they admitted her is because when they would lay her flat she would become unresponsive. When they did the CAT Scan and the X Rays this happened. We have also known that she has had bad lungs for a while now but if she was sitting up she was fine. I stayed up there until around 5:30 when they said they were going to admit her. Mom said she would stay with her until they got her in a room.
This is the part that gets me. When I left I said “I will be back tomorrow during lunch to check on you but until then you behave”. She looked at me and said “I always know you I can rely on”. I said “I love you” and left. WHY did her last words have to be nice??? Why couldn’t she just been mean to me like always and made this easier for me. I know she is in a better place and she is with my Papa now but I have realized that she realized no matter how mean she was to me or how much she put me down and my Mom down that I was going to come back. That I would always be there because no matter what else she was my Grandma. Why she chose to unleash her fury on Me and Bev is still something I don’t understand but it was so much easier for me when she was just a hateful old lady. I know that sounds horrible but it’s true.
Anyway, they called at about 6 am the next morning asking Mom if she had a Do Not Resistate and Mom said yes and they told her she needed to get up there. We had just been talking to her less than 12 hours ago so Mom didn’t call Phil (he was gone on a camping trip to Lake Texoma with his church group). Mom got there and they had her on a bi-pap machine. Something just to push air into her lungs but not a ventilator. Mom called me and I came up there and I called Phil and told him and they packed up and came home. At first Phil didn’t want to turn off the bi-pap and understandably so, he had just walked into a mine field and we all had had all day to get use to the idea. Finally after talking to MaryNell, Jerry and Michelle he decided that it was best to let her join Papa. The respitory tech came in and turned off the machine, Mom and Phil left because they didn’t want to see her suffer, of course. The Dr’s couldn’t tell us that she would struggle for breath but they also couldn’t say she wouldn’t and they didn’t want to take that chance and I certainly don’t blame them.
Jerry, Michelle, Wilson and I stayed in the room. I didn’t really intend too but it all happened so fast. We all originally said we didn’t want to be in the room and Wilson said he would stay with her because he didn’t want her to be alone. I don’t know how I got so lucky with him but I sure did.
After they turned the machine off it only took about 10 minutes. The doctors had told us it could be anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. Her oxygen level fell pretty quick and her heart rate and pulse was not too far behind. She just went to sleep. No suffering.
It was so sad to see all the monitors read “0” when all morning we had been watching those numbers so closely and gasping every time they would fall.
She had taken care of pretty much everything for us, she had prepaid and pre-planned her funeral about a year ago. That made things so much easier for Mom and Phil. Now we are left to decide who gets what and what to do with all of her things.
Mom is doing OK I guess. She won’t stop talking and Wilson says it’s because she doesn’t want to stop and think. The more she is thinking and doing other things she doesn’t have to realize what is really happening. She stayed in San Angleo and her and Cheryl are going to the rodeo this weekend. I am worried about her having to drive back on Sunday. She will be in the car for 5 ½ hours by herself and no where to escape too because that drive is boring as hell.
Phil is not doing so good but he was close to Gee like Mom was with Papa. I have also discovered that she told all of us things that she didn’t tell him. She had talked about death to all of us and mentioned it a couple of times in the last few weeks but never to him. She told us what she wanted to be buried in and how she wanted the service, but never to Phil. I think she tried to shelter him from anything that might hurt him but all of this he has found out in the last couple of days.
It’s been rough. I cried this morning when telling the girl in accounting about an invoice I needed to create. It just hits me and I can’t help it. Wilson said last night “you just look blah” and I started crying and said “I want blah to go away. I’m tired of blah”. But that is exactly how I feel. Not really happy about anything and not really sad about anything. Just blah and I hate that because I don’t feel like I am myself. I have only really found grief once in my life and that was with Papa and I have discovered I don’t really care for it, at all.
Good Lord, I talk about Mom not shutting up and look at me.