My dearest friends:
Late last night Jan and I returned from what had been a wonderful 2 weeks in St. Maarten with our close friends Viv and Larry Houk. This morning we got up and went down to Morningstar Baptist Church to enjoy a great breakfast with our friends there and make the final plans for our Thanksgiving Basket project. This is something we have done for 15 years through The Starfish Foundation and Elim Church and Calvary Church. We set our goal at 180 baskets which is what we did last year. This was a project very close to Jan's heart and we left there in high spirits and looking forward to make this happen.
We left there and went over to Cafe Latte with our wonderful friends Jim and Maydelle Fennick where we had our "dessert" following breakfast...and had a special visit for about 1 1/2 hours. We then went home to relax for a bit, wrap some birthday presents and around 3:15 headed over to Mike and Julie Ann's for Keira's 2nd birthday.
It was a very special time with all of the family being there and once we had eaten and bit and the presents had been opened, we were just sitting around visiting, playing with the grandkids...an afternoon that could not have been better. Jan was sitting in a lazy boy rocker and suddenly she started to lean back and said something like "What is happening to me?" It was obvious that she had totally blacked out...instantly there were 3 nurse practitioner's who took over (Julie plus 2 of her close friends)...we called 911 while those 3 did everything humanly possible.
We thought we had lost her right after the ambulance arrived...but they were able to restore the heart beat and she was rushed to the hospital. We knew from the start that it was very serious and after about an hour in emergency room the doctor used the word "catastrophic" to describe what had happened.
Apparently it was an aneurism that broke in the brain and because she is on coumadin and her blood is thin to protect against blood clots a massive amount of blood was found in her brain when they were able top do a quick CScan. The result is that there was no brain activity and no possibility that she would she would be able survive. Extraordinary measures would have only prolonged what was going to happen and tonight at about 11:00 p.m. she slipped away peacefully.
We were all together as a family and we all had ample opportunity to say our goodbyes. It was so hard to say goodbye, but thank God for our faith and the knowledge that she is now with the Lord. I have a friend staying the night at the house with me as I wanted the to go home and be with their kids and be able to process things both tonight and in the morning. They will all be coming over tomorrow at noon and we will try to make all the necessary decisions. At this time we are thinking of a Memorial Service on Friday of this week...but will let you all know the details once they are in place.
Thanks for all your prayers...I love you,
John
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