The other night during dinner the boys really wanted to talk to Goosey (my grandma). Knowing that she wasn’t available for comment I had the boys make a video message for her.
This is for you Goosey! We miss you – we love you – and we’ll see you soon!
At 2:20am this morning my Grandpa, Robert ‘Bob’ Walker, passed away.
Many of you know that ‘Pa Bob’ (that’s what the boys call him) has struggled with his health over the last two months. I’ve blogged about it a lot on this site. We thought he had reached a major positive turning point when he was able to come home this past Tuesday.
His body just wasn’t ready for the move from the hospital and on Thursday my Grandma called 9-1-1 and he was readmitted to the ICU. My Mom and Aunt Patti flew up on Friday to be with my Grandma. The Doctor was cautiously optimistic that he would, again, turn things around. They even took out the ventilator they had put him on.
This morning my Grandma received a call from the hospital saying that they needed to intubate him again, but that he was refusing. This was his wish and my Grandma relayed that to them. The nurse then suggested that she come down to the hospital. She woke my Mom and Patti up and they joined her at the hospital.
My Grandpa was awake and very coherent. He and my Grandma shared their quiet goodbyes. He said ‘Things are taken care of Joyce”. She said, “Yes they are Bob. You know that. We’ve been through everything.” He nodded. He told Mom and Patti that he loved them and that he loves his family. He asked Patti to say a prayer. After the prayer he slowed his breathing, closed his eyes, shuddered, and was gone.
My Mom said that it was very peaceful and about as good as you could want a passing to be.
I absolutely adore my Grandparents. My Grandpa has been like a 2nd Father to me – coming to events in my life, teaching me lessons about love and spirit, and showing me love at every moment. I cannot even say how much I will miss him or how my heart feels with this loss.
Yet at the same time I am so glad he is done with the fight and done with the pain.
We will be going to Utah sometime this week for the funeral on Saturday – and it will be great to have time with my family to celebrate my Grandpa.
As you all know Southern California is on fire. As of today there are 500,000 people who have been evacuated from their homes, 1,600 homes lost to the first, and hundreds of thousands of acres burnt. Our hearts and thoughts go to each person effected by this.
We, fortunately, have not been effected with the exception of smoke and ash. Wanting a little bit of fresh air and open space the boys and I ventured down to the beach. I hadn’t really thought my plan through too well as most of the fires in Orange County are blowing smoke out to the ocean. The closer we got the redder the sky got. It was surreal.
When we got to the beach itself the air was not as bad as expected. There was a lot of smoke out over the ocean but we were breathing just fine.
The boys LOVE the ocean and I am so glad that one of my passions is evident in them. They immediately got into sand and played their hearts out. We stayed for almost three hours – it was heaven!
Within a half hour of being there though – well, I think I’ll let the pictures and video tell the story. This kid cracks me up!
(This video is from 15 minutes later after he had buried the sandwich several times!)
