Dad passed away in the night 2-15-12

Dear family and friends,

Dad passed away in the night last night. His official time of death is 12:10 a.m. Feb. 15, but that's really the time the staff at the care facility found he'd died. I like to think he really died on Valentine's Day, the day Mom was buried. (But Dad might think I'm being sentimental, and he didn't like sentimentality!)

Although no family was there (from this side) when he died, I believe Mom was with him - not sentimentality but conviction - and family members were with him earlier in the day yesterday. Martha was with him till about three in the afternoon, and he seemed to be much the same as he'd been before, not in physical distress. Martha thinks the staff probably checked on Dad at least once after she left.

By the time Lucy came at about five, Dad was struggling, choking on phlegm and gasping for breath. I'm not sure of the exact sequence of events, but I think Lucy called Barbara (his hospice nurse), who called the care facility and told them he needed to have morphine every hour. My impression is that the medication helped ease his breathing.

Lucy had to leave at 8:30 yesterday evening, and we trust that the staff continued to administer the morphine hourly and the ativan at two-to-four hour intervals to help him breathe more easily through the rest of the night until he passed away.

We've scheduled the funeral for 11 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 25 to allow time for family to gather. There will be a viewing Friday, Feb. 24 at Wheeler Mortuary in Springville from 6 to 8 p.m. and a viewing Saturday morning from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. at the chapel at 1965 E. Canyon Road in Springville. The funeral will follow at 11 a.m. PLEASE NOTE: the viewing and funeral will NOT be in the chapel right by Dad's house. Continue up Canyon Road as if you're going to the golf course. The next chapel on your left is the correct one.

I was relieved when I received the call in the night that Dad had died - being far away and unable to help and only receiving snippets of information has been very hard. Today rather than a lump in my throat, I have a balloon in my chest. I'm sure as the grief comes up, it will ebb and flow.

I'll keep the blog up until some later time. I want to invite people to tell their favorite stories about Dad.

Thanks for your love and concern.