Monthly Archives: October 2009

Rehab

I am finally through with the hospital. Lon is at a rehab facility for awhile, as we get him ready to finally come home. I am glad that this surgery happened after they updated the hospital. There were not as bad memories as I feared. I reminded myself at one point that this was the place where I met Lon and that put a different spin on it. I think my saddest memory there was of Pastor George, when we had lunch together in the cafeteria. It was when Jeffrey was first there. Pastor gave me money out of his own pocket so that I could travel back and forth to be with Jeffrey. I still miss Pastor. He was a sweet, kind man, the sort of Christian where his faith really shines forth.

I also lost Wallace this week, my lab. I don’t think he really recovered from Tessie or Jeffrey’s deaths. He came down with pneumonia during all of this. He was such a good dog, if a bit solemn. Now, it’s just me and Loretta with all the cats. I am going to spread Wallace’s ashes at the same place I spread the ones from Tessie and Jeffrey. I know he’d be happy to be reunited with them.

Surgery

Lon has gone through hip replacement surgery again. The replacement he did 15 years ago has failed. It’s been pretty stressful. He wound up in the ICU for a day after the operation. The good news is that they have a new ICU so it did not bring back too many memories. I have seen a few of the doctors that worked on Jeffrey and Lon had one nurse that worked on his wife Kate. Mostly, it’s just been hard to deal with being back here at the hospital again. The good news is that he came through the surgery okay. I am hoping to have him home soon.

Closure

Saturday, we drove to the Gorge and scattered Jeffrey’s ashes. I’d decided to scatter them over the Wind River Bridge in Carson. Local call this the High Bridge, since it’s a long way down to the river. The view is spectacular.

Lon scattered Tessie’s ashes first. Tessie was my old Rottweiler and maybe one of Jeffrey’s favorite dogs of all time. She had cancer and I had her put down a few weeks ago. Her ashes went straight down. Then I scattered Jeffrey’s. There was a mist of ashes that hung in the air. In the light, you could see them trending upwards. It was very beautiful. Then the air cleared and they were gone.

I knew these were just the shell of Jeffrey and that his soul had departed October 13th of last year. But this ritual felt right and I’m glad I decided to place his ashes at this location. Lon and I went to the local Mexican restaurant afterwards. We had nachos and margaritas. Lon asked me to tell him about when I first met Jeffrey, back in college. It felt good to tell those stories again.

Today is the anniversary of the death of Lon’s wife, Kate. He’d planned to spread her ashes in the ocean, but that has been put on hold for awhile. He’s going in for hip surgery on the 22nd. He had hip replacement surgery 15 years ago, but one of the joints disintegrated. He won’t be able to put weight on that leg for three months. I suspect we’ll do the trip to the coast this coming spring.

The new job is going okay. I start my new shift tonight, 4:30 pm to 1 am. Maybe I’ll sleep better on this one. I don’t seem to be able to handle getting up at 5 in the morning any more.