Sunday, August 12 - Thursday, August 23
The main
decoration on the table would be the musical Bonita II that Jim and I had given
Edith several months ago.
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Wednesday, August 15
Our party
this month included Angela, TJ, Cherri, Bruce, David and Beth (Edith’s pastor
and his wife), Jim, Edith, and me.
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Now I’m not
certain when, but we received a text or call from Nancy saying that Jean, who
had cancer, was slipping. After several calls and messages, it was decided that
Jim and I would head for Artesia as we wanted to spend as much time with Jean
as possible. While I started packing, Jim took Bonita to the vet. We told Edith and T.J. what we were doing and
then took off, driving straight through from Mineola to Artesia.
When we got
to Artesia, we went straight to Jerry and Nancy’s house, since Jean had health
care professionals staying in her house.
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Friday, August 17
Today was
just a day of visiting with the Terpening family and helping as much as we
could to prepare for what we knew was coming.
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Saturday, August 18
Jim: Jerry had to go to work this morning, so Barbara, Nancy, and I stayed around the house to watch over Jean and visit with the health care people as they did their jobs. At some point, the hospice lady told us the end was near for Jean. We each went in and talked to Jean and then I went downtown to the mortuary to answer the phones while Jerry went back to Jean’s house. Within a few minutes of arriving at the mortuary, Barbara called to say that Jean’s battle with cancer was over.
The rest of
the day was spent in notifying friends and family of what had happened and
preparing for Jean’s family to get to Artesia.
Sunday, August 19 – Tuesday, August 21
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We all went
through these days in a haze, sharing memories of Jean and taking care of all
the things that attend a death in the family and handling the “normal” daily
routines (church, business, visitations, etc.) in as normal a manner as
possible. As we all waited for other family and friends to arrive each day was
filled with activities centered on keeping the young ones busy and entertained
which brought a measure of comfort to each of us.
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Wednesday, August 21
Family and
friends gathered this morning to say their final farewells to Jean and express their
condolences to the family. Following a
graveside service, we went to First Methodist Church for a meal together and
then most of us began the journey back to our respective homes.
A day to celebrate the life of Jean Terpening, aka Mother, G-Ma. Thanks for the memories and love.
The kids you left behind...
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We left Lovington and drove as far as Colorado City to spend the night and try to regroup for the remainder of the journey to Mineola tomorrow.
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Thursday, August 23
Today was mostly a day of
driving. We got away from Colorado City
around 9:00, drove to the Dallas area and stopped for lunch at Red Lobster and
some shopping at Barnes and Noble, and then finished the drive to Mineola,
where we stopped to see Mother at Wood Memorial Nursing Home before going to
the house and unpacking the car.
Once we had
everything put away at the house, Barbara took out a couple of gifts that we
got from Jean’s house. The first was a
large crocheted tablecloth that Jean had made for Barbara’s wedding to Henry in
1966. The rose on the tablecloth is one
of the many flowers that had been sent to Jean’s family during the week, and
the hummingbird/flowers came from one of the corners of the casket.
“True friends are
families which you can select” - Audrey
Hepburn
Back home in
Mineola with beautiful memories of a special lady and her family,
Jim/Dad/Gramps
and Barbara/Mom/Grams
