Updates from Thanksgiving Week

Hello Blog-world. I am sorry I have been away so long. But you see, I had some important things to attend to the last 10 days...

As I mentioned in my last post, my Pops was very sick, and he and our family was in need of your prayers. His health continued to fail quickly, so Paul and I decided to head up to Minnesota earlier than planned last week so that we could spend some time with him. We had a really sweet week with my family and I am so thankful we were able to spend so much time up there.

It became apparent a couple days before Thursday that the "adults' would need to be spending most of their time with Pops and there were no plans for the holiday meal. So Paul and I offered/were strongly encouraged to take control! We did all the shopping and cooking for Thanksgiving together (with the help of one of my cousins who made the mashed potatoes!) and it was such an adventure! I am kind of glad that we only found out we would be doing this 2 days before, otherwise I would have been stressing about it for weeks :)  But everything turned out delicious and we enjoyed the meal as a family at Pops' residential hospice home. It was bittersweet to eat together as Pops slept in the other room, but we were thankful to have one last Thanksgiving with him nearby. The rest of the evening we told stories, played games and took turns holding Papa's hand.

Sadly, just after midnight my precious Pops passed away. Thanksgiving would be his last day on earth with us and somehow it seemed appropriate. Pops loved his family more than anything else in the world and his favorite thing was when we were all together. I know he was thankful this Thanksgiving that most of his immediate family was by his side, and there was no where else in the world I would have rather been.

The home where Pops spent his last days was in a beautiful setting and we would often see deer, birds and even a fox outside his large window!  I took the pictures above to remember the sweet place Pops spent his last days.