Resting in Peace

~erica

Nathan with Great-Grandma Hendrickson the day he came home from Afghanistan in March

Ryan's Grandma Hendrickson died this morning at 91 years of age. She loved the Lord and had a good life; outliving her husband, her sisters, and 2 great-grandchildren. She'd been relatively healthy for all these years as well. Recently they found a mass near her pancreas (but not pancreatic) and another one on her back. She had opted for no treatment, just palliative care at home. As I sat down to write this morning she was failing and I didn't know how to pray. Did I pray that she rallies or did I pray that her passing was peaceful and mercifully quick? All I could pray was "thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven."

Yesterday was her only bad day, she was weak and in a lot of pain. The pain was allowed to overwhelm her and it took a long time to get it back under control. Ryan's cousin spent the night with her and texted me updates every hour on the hour, it was like having a newborn. She ended up spending the entire night sitting next to Grandma watching her breathe. This morning she reported that Grandma was sleeping comfortably. I got a panicked text about 9 that her fingers were turning blue and I called Shar to ask if she needed me to come. We got out of the house as quickly as we could, I was making arrangements for the kids while we went out the door. 2 minutes from her house we got the text that she was gone. She went peacefully in her blue recliner, where Ryan promised her she could die. She went about 40 minutes before a hospital bed was due to be delivered (she adamantly did not want to have a hospital bed- they made her hurt).

I've spent all day with the family and working to tie up loose ends. Ryan's clinical schedule doesn't allow for time off for these circumstances so it's falling to me, Nathan came down and he's stepping up in his dad's stead to "make things right." I'm proud of him, he has Ryan's empathy and seems to be developing my attention to details. I'm proud of all the kids, they spent a long and stressful day peacefully, without adding further stress. Rush hung out with the other cousins, Arin's friend skipped school to be with him and they helped with VBS prep for next week, Tovah spent the day in the church daycare, and Jonah & Isaac played video games in a Sunday School room. Rush was good about checking on them and taking them lunch and making sure they were okay. The only issue of the day was Isaac's tooth, it broke while he was eating a jawbreaker, the problem is our dentist is out on jury duty the whole week...   

We don't know when the services will be. The family will be meeting with the pastor tomorrow.