Miss Lorna K

Today was a very sad day for our family. Jamie's Aunt Lorna is dying, and appears to have reached the end of her illness. Things happened so suddenly, and she is too young. She was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's only a few years ago, after caring for her own mother with Alzheimer's and the decline has been extraordinary. We brought Hazel by the nursing home to say goodbye to her Great Aunt this morning. Lorna's daughters who are our closest family, wonderful friends, and Hazel's aunties were also there spending the last days with their mother. Watching Lorna's health decline has been so difficult; she had recently married, Jen had her son Owen last year and Lisse had her twin girls three weeks later. Jen is pregnant again with a daughter, due July 20th. Just as Lorna was supposed to begin relaxing and enjoying all her grand babies, enjoying her husband and her home by the water, she became sick. We try to support Jen and Lisse the best we can, but sometimes we just don't know what to do because we want to fix it, and can't.

I've always thought Lorna was such a special woman; she was so welcoming to me, treating me like family from the start. Lorna K was always impeccably dressed, neatly coiffed and smiling. She never had a bad thing to say about anyone and was always a true lady. Lorna loved having parties, and always welcomed all of her daughters friends over, no matter how drunk they would get, no matter how many of them would sleep on the floor that night. I always knew that we were welcome at her house, and she loved seeing her nephews! I just thought she was a really cool woman, and was so positive and optimistic. Lorna K was a rare kind of woman, and I'm going to miss her.

This was three weeks ago when Hazel visited Great Aunt Lorna. Lorna asked to hold Hazel and she just smiles and tickled her little feet. She seemed to really take pleasure in having a little baby on her lap again. Unfortunately I only had my cell phone to take a picture, so it's a little dark but I'm glad that I got it.