Super Woman

It's almost been three weeks since I lost my first grandparent, my grandma Therber! I thought I'd write a blog about her to share with everyone what an amazing, strong woman she was....

My grandmother had a huge tumor in her belly several years ago. She literally looked pregnant the tumor was so large. They finally removed the tumor and it actually ruptured during the process of removal. I'm not sure what the name of the cancer is, it's very rare and they sometimes refer to it as 'Jelly Belly'. The cancer coated the organs in my grandmother and after removing the tumor they had to clean her insides to make sure they got all of the cancer.

About two years later it came back.... my grandmother went through chemo, which worked great. Around the first of the year, I believe, is when she started complaining of pain in her belly and again she started to become bloated, which is what had happened before.

She went to several different doctors to get them to do surgery on her and none would agree. She finally got her doctor in Byron to do the surgery although he told her that she could possibly die from the procedure. My grandma was in such pain that she did not care what the outcome was, she was ready to stop suffering.

The surgery went well and my grandma was in the hospital for almost a week after the surgery. She got to come home, but was not able to really eat much and had a lot of gas built up in her. I had gone to see her while in the hospital and then I went to florida with my friend Tiffany and her family.

I knew my grandma wasn't doing very well and so I would talk to my dad quite often to check in and several times my dad would break down and say that she wasn't going to make it! On the 9th of July, which was a Wednesday (my Aunt Penny's birthday and my cousin Sheila's) my mom told me that hospice had come to the house and had her on Morphine. My grandma passed away that day and all her children were there with her....

I came home that next day from the beach, which was when we had planned to leave in the beginning... I came home to a lot of family at the house which followed a full weekend of a house full, a lot of memories and a funeral!

It's so crazy to think that my grandma is no longer here... I almost don't believe it still! It's hard to believe that she won't be there for all the holidays. I dread going to visit my grandpa knowing that my grandma won't be there to greet me with a huge hug and kiss!

Everytime I talked to my grandma she always was making sure that school was going well, that I still had a roomate b/c she didn't want me living alone and she always hated hearing that I was going out of town somewhere b/c she worried that some one would get me while driving down the road, haha....

I admired my grandma so much... she raised eleven children and helped her husband in the body shop, working on cars, painting, sanding and doing whatever there was to be done! At the same time she was keeping things up in the house and cooking every meal. I have 28 cousins and 31 second cousins... our family is huge and it will never be the same!

I pray that we can continue to stay close and never take for granted the amazing and HUGE family that we are blessed with, which all started with my grandma and grandpa! I'm going to make sure that I can spend as much time with my other grandparents while they are still here!