"THE CALL" .....

Thelma, The GrumpyUnk Mom, passed away yesterday.

Yesterday evening, just as the sun was setting, I got "THE CALL". Everyone either already knows about what "THE CALL" means or they will. Sooner or later.

The boy who cuts my Mothers lawn told his Mom that "Something didn't look right" at my Moms' place.

Mom ALWAYS keeps her place locked up like Ft. Knox and is very regimented on her routines.

The lawn kid noticed that she hadn't closed her front door up yet and didn't answer when he knocked. The storm door was locked and the big door was still open at around 7pm. Not normal. His Mom tried calling and got no answer.

She then made "THE CALL" here and told me.

All I could say was ........ Shit.

I already knew what I was gonna find.

Dogboy and I got in the car and drove over there. I told him on the way over that we weren't likely to find anything good when we got there. He already knew that, of course, but I had to say it anyway.

We didn't find anything good.

I had Dogboy, who is very close to his Grandma, wait outside, while I went in and looked around. I was hoping to find her in her chair or in bed, or something like that. Not quite, but that's the way life is. We don't generally get to pick when or how it ends.

Dogboy goes over there from work and has lunch with her most everyday. Yesterday he got off work early and didn't make it as usual. That was probably a good thing. Better that I was the first one to find her instead of him.

Mom was 80 years old and did pretty well for her age. But she was 80 years old. I'm not sure why I was surprised she'd died.

I'm an RN and have seen many folks die. But never my Mom, so I was kinda shook up and for a few minutes I didn't know just what I was supposed to do. After a few minutes, I got on the phone to 911 and the nice dispatcher got things rolling in an orderly manner. Jack, One of my friends on the Police force showed up and took charge of the situation and things went ok from there. More of my friends from the local EMS came and took over. God bless 'em all for helping me out.

Strangely enough, Mom had called my Sister in Law last Friday and went over everything she wanted regarding her funeral arrangements.

So maybe she was less surprised than I was about the whole thing.

It's funny how earlier yesterday I was putting up "Birth Announcements" for baby chickens and then the lawn kids' Mom makes "THE CALL". And everything you've ever known in your life changes.

While making "CALLS" of my own today, several folks mentioned, how she had recently said she was "Getting tired and ready to go".

Funny, She had been bragging to me, just last week, about how much better she'd been doing lately. I'm not sure if that means anything significant or if her Alzhiemers was just more or less active, depending on who she was talking to and when. Guess I'll never know now.

We had had a pretty tempestuous relationship through the years, but had pretty much settled into a good thing as we both matured. Except of course, when I'd push her buttons and twist her tail, just to see her get all pissy for fun.

She seldom failed to disappoint. People who know me are able to do the same shit to me and get the same kinda reactions. They're seldom disappointed either. Yeah, you know who you are ....... You Shitheads.

I guess I got that from her. Well, I can use that as a good excuse anyway.

We're gonna miss her. She was a good ol' Girl.

Thelma GrumpyMom. 8-29-25 -- 5-1-06