Our Little Papa

 Today was a pretty tough day for our family. On Sunday afternoon Papa (Herb's dad) fell at the home where he is living now and broke his hip. He has a high pain tolerance at first and it took a day or so for anyone to really detect that something was wrong. He fell about 4 times within the past year when he lived at our house. The last fall was in December, and that is when it became apparent that he would need more care then we could give him ourselves, so we found a wonderful home right by our house to stay at. They are great people, and have taken such good care of our Papa.

Anyway finally the doctor who comes to the home sent over an x-ray tech and we found that he had broken his hip. NOT GOOD!!! to say the least. So we got him to the hospital and by now the pain was pretty bad. Because of his dimentia (I am sure I spelled that wrong), we really are never sure if he is in pain or not, kindof like the boy who cried wolf.....but this time there was no doubt.

This is a picture of him in the hospital last year, and he looks great here. But let me tell you this is not the case now. He has gone downhill these past few months rapidly. I did not take a picture today because it made me so sad, but anyway the options were surgery (full hip replacement), or hospice where they will keep him comfortable until the end. As we spoke with the Doctors about the options and what dad had told us when he could tell us what he wanted, and we oppted to put him on hospice and pray for a Merciful Heavenly Father to releave the pain and take him home.

Life is interesting sometimes. I would never have thought that I would have enjoyed any part of taking care of this big ol grumpisaurus, but now that it is close to over, I will miss that part of him. Not the grumpy part, but the part where we laughed a ton, (didn't really happen very often, but sometimes), doing puzzles, watching him chit chat with the babies, he acted like he didn't like them around, but he sure lit up when they came in the room. Calin especially lately made him smile. He was so intriged with Papas walker and that just seemed to tickle something in Papa and he would tease that baby back and forth and laugh and laugh with him.

He was difficult, but really aren't we all in our own ways,

He was grumpy, but aren't we all sometimes,

He was really really mean, hopefully we are not mean and can learn from that

But he was also Herb's dad and my father in law and I am grateful for these past few years of caring for him and serving him, and helping him to feel just a pinch of the spirit so maybe he could find some happiness in this life.

I will not miss the grumpy, or the mean, but I will miss the little windows of joy that really were there, not often, but they were there and I think that he was grateful for all the we did, and that makes me happy. So please everyone take just a moment, breath, and remember all of the people in your life, even the grumpy ones, and try to remember the good times and nothing else.

I will miss you papa, thanks for the memories grumpysaurus!!!!

We love you