Well, the last couple of weeks have been quite the roller coaster. I’m very happy to say that I’m finally on the upswing after a few couple of days. This is going to be a long one, but I promise, there’s happy news at the end if you can last that long!
The Thursday before Easter started out pretty normal. I was excited because quarter end craziness was finally over so I had scheduled a massage for that evening at 5. Brad’s family goes to dinner at the local Amvets every Thursday night. When Brad is home, I usually go with him. When Brad is working, I never go. I mean, I never go to dinner with them. Nothing against them, but I guess I’m kind of a snob about eating out in this town. There are very few things on the menus that I couldn’t make better by making them myself (and healthier!). Like I said, I’ll go when Brad’s home but never when he’s working.
For whatever reason, I told his parents I’d go that night. I don’t know, maybe I thought that the massage would make me mellow enough to enjoy it, or maybe God just knew I was going to need to be there. But that Thursday night, as we were all sitting there eating dinner and dessert…Brad’s grandmother collapsed.
At first I thought she was just choking. She seemed to just be trying to cough. But then it was pretty clear that it was much more serious than that. She couldn’t have been in better hands – her son (a trained paramedic) and her son’s brother in law (also a trained paramedic) were working on her within seconds. As Tara (her granddaughter) called 911, I called Brad at work to tell him that he and Michael needed to get away as soon as possible. Because their job is so complicated, I knew it could take hours for them to have relief come in for them. An hour later, I was at the hospital waiting for Brad. The doctors kept telling us they thought it was just seizures, but I think we all knew it was going to come back as another stroke. She’d had 2 already and we all knew it was only a matter of time before another one came along.
I went home that night in case I had to go in to work the next day. Brad got home around 2am and it became pretty clear I wasn’t going to work that day. We were at the hospital bright and early the next morning for the neurologist.
I’ll spare you all of the details, but hearing the doctors say what we’d all been dreading – that she wasn’t going to make it this time – was devastating. We took her off life support and we all said our goodbyes. Father Paul did the last rites (which, by the way, as a non-Catholic, this is one ritual that I fully support. I’d never been present for the last rites before but it was absolutely beautiful. Who wouldn’t want to be prayed over by their family and closest friends as they’re passing through this world to the next? I can imagine it would be peaceful to be the one they’re being administered to and they definitely gave me some peace).
But that Helen, she’s a fighter. She hung on until Monday evening, surrounded by her family. I’ve never watched someone pass before, but watching her made it seem not scary at all. Just a breath and then she was gone.
I don’t think there’s any way you could ever say that someone died “well”. But I think God’s plan for her was pretty well thought through. She had two people (who aren’t always present at Thursday evening meals) able to work on her as soon as we realized something was wrong. There will never be “what if’s” in anyone’s mind whether something more could have been done. There couldn’t. We all said our goodbyes on Friday but she hung on until Monday. Her children were able to spend all that time saying goodbye and finally coming to a place where they told her it was okay to go, they’d be alright. She didn’t go too quickly but she didn’t linger forever. I think God knew that nobody wanted it to be over that quickly, but they didn’t want her to linger forever. The people who “could handle” her passing were present. The ones who didn’t particularly want to be there when she passed weren’t. It was just all God’s timing and it was as good as good can get in that situation.
In the midst of all of that…I was having interviews for jobs. I had 3 companies interested in me at that point – two of which had multiple positions they were interested in me for.
The next week, I turned in my FINAL PAPER FOR GRADUATE SCHOOL and Brad and I went to Charlotte so I could present a paper to a global public relations conference. I presented it on a Friday morning and then got to spend the rest of the weekend with my family and ended the weekend with an amazing sushi lunch with our good friend Beth.
The Monday we got back to MD, I went in to one of the companies for a third interview and on Tuesday was offered the job! It had been quite the ordeal. I originally applied for a Graphics & Marketing Communications Specialist position. After the phone interview I was told that I was a bit underqualified for that position…but that there was also a Marketing & Public Relations Assistant position open. I was overqualified for that one but it paid more than I currently made so I said I’d be open to it. They went back and forth for awhile, trying to decide which position they wanted me in and finally decided that because I worked full time while getting my master’s from Johns Hopkins (her daughter had been accepted and she felt the curriculum was really tough), that I would be able to handle the challenges. So now, instead of beginning as an Assistant, I will be going in as a Specialist, reporting to the Vice President of Marketing & Public Relations. Just my dream job. Nbd.
So that, in a nutshell is how I lost someone dear to me, finished my graduate degree, presented a paper at a conference, and got an incredible job opportunity in the span of 2 weeks.
