Thursday, July 17, 2003
Steve Weeks CG, Noxapater, MS July 10-???
Willie's dad (Tony) had recently learned that he had blockages in both carotid arteries. They first gave him blood thinners to keep him from having a major stroke. Then they scheduled the first surgery for 6/30 so took him off the blood thinners until after the surgery. The surgery went well, and he came home on 7/2. He felt fine from the surgery, but he had a very sore throat due to a yeast infection from some of the pre-op medications. No matter what he took, he was in constant pain in his throat. This was very wearing on him and he needed some physical & moral support. After Willie talked with him on Sat 7/5, she decided she should fly down 7/6 & help him out for a "few days". Friends picked her up at the Jackson airport around 2:15 on Sun. They had spoken with Tony just before they came to get her, and he was so happy she was almost there. When they walked into the house, Tony appeared to be napping, but on closer examination he was not breathing and was too still. EMTs were called but he had been dead too long. It was a very sad time, but Willie was so glad she got to see how peacefully he went and also to be there for her mother.
Now back to Doug, who when last heard from was alone up at Lighthouse Rock CG in Wisconsin. He made plans to leave as soon as he got some last minute things tended to. He planned as quick a trip as he thought possible, heading out on Tues 7/7. He went about 350 miles the first day -- double the distance of our average travel day's mileage -- and it took him 10 hours. It was a day filled with horrible road construction (at one point it took 90 min to go 17 miles), torrential rains, nearby tornadoes and then the final blow (pun intended!), a flat tire on one of the 4 trailer tires about 20 miles from his planned destination. He drove the short distance to the cg with only 3 tires and then called the repair service to put on the spare. Now he had to come the rest of the way with no spare, since the old tire had disintegrated and was not able to be repaired.
His second day of travel went smoothly, to the point of tedium, and the only problem was extreme heat, which took its toll on him and all the cats. They again went 350 miles and were glad to get stopped and get the a/c running. The third day, while not totally uneventful, was better because it was only 250 miles and had Willie at the end of it. Again, there were heavy rains, plus a really horrible bumpy stretch of interstate in TN that caused all the dishes to fall out of the cupboard and land in a pile of shards on the floor. Being Corelle, the shards made it look much worse than it actually was. After cleaning up the minute pieces, we found that we had only lost 2 dinner plates and 2 salad plates.
The graveside burial service was held on Friday, July 11, with just the family attending. Saturday a Memorial Service was held at Noxapater Baptist Church, where he was a member and active volunteer. Willie's sister, brother-in-law, niece & nephew were able to be there, too. All went as well as can be expected.
Willie's mother, Ann, is legally blind and also very frail, so she cannot stay by herself. The house & land are too much to try to work out a way for her to stay with paid help (plus reliable help would be hard to find & manage). She has decided to move to an assisted living home in Columbus, MS. It is near enough that she will get visits from friends from Noxapater. We all visited it and found it to be quite pleasant, plus there is already a woman friend from Noxapater living there who is looking forward to Ann's coming there. We plan for her to move in around August 1. This is going to be quite a physical & emotional challenge for all of us involved.
Willie is executor of her father's estate, plus the only one here to deal with all that is involved in getting her mother moved and the property she now owns sold, so we will be enjoying the lovely MS summer weather for a while yet.
We have no plans beyond getting Ann moved into her new place and clearing the stuff out of the house and tending to legal matters. We had recently made "plans" to head back west for the fall and winter, but those have been thrown on the trash heap. We both do not want to go far away from where Ann will be until we see how things are going here. Once the weather is not so very hot, there are some interesting places we can visit nearby and still come back to visit Ann.
This little "by the side of the highway" cg is quite basic. The big trucks (mainly logging trucks) rock us to sleep at night. Luckily, the electricity is VERY good. We can run our a/c and all other electrical items without worry. The water pressure is good. The cats think it is a fine place -- they just want to be settled down with their people!! The a/c runs 24 hrs a day, so it helps drown out the traffic noise. More good news -- it doesn't look like we will have to worry about Labor Day weekend crowds!!
Now back to Doug, who when last heard from was alone up at Lighthouse Rock CG in Wisconsin. He made plans to leave as soon as he got some last minute things tended to. He planned as quick a trip as he thought possible, heading out on Tues 7/7. He went about 350 miles the first day -- double the distance of our average travel day's mileage -- and it took him 10 hours. It was a day filled with horrible road construction (at one point it took 90 min to go 17 miles), torrential rains, nearby tornadoes and then the final blow (pun intended!), a flat tire on one of the 4 trailer tires about 20 miles from his planned destination. He drove the short distance to the cg with only 3 tires and then called the repair service to put on the spare. Now he had to come the rest of the way with no spare, since the old tire had disintegrated and was not able to be repaired.
His second day of travel went smoothly, to the point of tedium, and the only problem was extreme heat, which took its toll on him and all the cats. They again went 350 miles and were glad to get stopped and get the a/c running. The third day, while not totally uneventful, was better because it was only 250 miles and had Willie at the end of it. Again, there were heavy rains, plus a really horrible bumpy stretch of interstate in TN that caused all the dishes to fall out of the cupboard and land in a pile of shards on the floor. Being Corelle, the shards made it look much worse than it actually was. After cleaning up the minute pieces, we found that we had only lost 2 dinner plates and 2 salad plates.
The graveside burial service was held on Friday, July 11, with just the family attending. Saturday a Memorial Service was held at Noxapater Baptist Church, where he was a member and active volunteer. Willie's sister, brother-in-law, niece & nephew were able to be there, too. All went as well as can be expected.
Willie's mother, Ann, is legally blind and also very frail, so she cannot stay by herself. The house & land are too much to try to work out a way for her to stay with paid help (plus reliable help would be hard to find & manage). She has decided to move to an assisted living home in Columbus, MS. It is near enough that she will get visits from friends from Noxapater. We all visited it and found it to be quite pleasant, plus there is already a woman friend from Noxapater living there who is looking forward to Ann's coming there. We plan for her to move in around August 1. This is going to be quite a physical & emotional challenge for all of us involved.
Willie is executor of her father's estate, plus the only one here to deal with all that is involved in getting her mother moved and the property she now owns sold, so we will be enjoying the lovely MS summer weather for a while yet.
We have no plans beyond getting Ann moved into her new place and clearing the stuff out of the house and tending to legal matters. We had recently made "plans" to head back west for the fall and winter, but those have been thrown on the trash heap. We both do not want to go far away from where Ann will be until we see how things are going here. Once the weather is not so very hot, there are some interesting places we can visit nearby and still come back to visit Ann.
This little "by the side of the highway" cg is quite basic. The big trucks (mainly logging trucks) rock us to sleep at night. Luckily, the electricity is VERY good. We can run our a/c and all other electrical items without worry. The water pressure is good. The cats think it is a fine place -- they just want to be settled down with their people!! The a/c runs 24 hrs a day, so it helps drown out the traffic noise. More good news -- it doesn't look like we will have to worry about Labor Day weekend crowds!!
# posted by Doug and Willie @ 10:52 PM 
