My step-father in-law Jack died Saturday after a brief illness. He had a stroke back in October and then slowly went downhill after that. He went into the hospital on Tuesday nite after he had fallen and my MIL couldn't get him up by herself. She called the fire department and they didn't like his breathing so they called for the ambulance. He really didn't want to end up in a nursing home and really didn't even want to end up in a hospital. My sil was flying out from Alberta because she wanted to bring him back home but he passed just before he got here.
Jack and his first wife had been a friend of the family forever. My hubby and his siblings spent summers at their house and then when Jack's wife took ill with cancer, he nursed her at home. Carrying her around, in and out of the bath, etc.....so she wouldn't have to die in the hospital and my sil just wanted to do the same for him.
Jack was 80 and would have celebrated another birthday on the 13th of this month. He was fit as a fiddle right up till the stroke. My kids have know him as papa since they were all born as he married my mil when Cody was barely 2 yet (he's almost 19 now) Hannah and Colton stayed with them whenever we went to Havelock so they got to know him very well. He was always one for playing games and spoiling them rotten...just as a papa should be. I never, ever heard him say an unkind word about anyone and I know that heaven is enjoying their new angel just as we did here
Still, I wish we would have found more time to pop in to see them both.....they only live about 3/4 of an hour from here and we just never 'made' the time. We saw them the day after Boxing Day when we went to their house for dinner but I know they would have loved to see more of us, just as any parent yearns for just one more visit or one more phone call from their children.
I am vowing to 'make' more time this year to share more treasured moments with all my special someones
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