a sad personal entry

I know a photography blog isn't really a place to share such a personal story, but I need to write right now, and I also want my very dedicated friends and family who read this learn about this past week of my life so that I don't have to tell the story over and over again, as we all know how frustrating that can be.

The Sunday after we arrived in NY we got an urgent call that my mom's dad had fallen and broken his hip. Pipi is a frail old soul and his poor bones are just so weak. He underwent surgery the following Tuesday and is having an awful recovery and reaction. It's as if his body is just too weak to handle the stress and the medications he needs to be comfortable. To put it bluntly, he is completely out of it. There have been times this past week he has been in extremely critical condition. He is in Room 4 in the ICU at the hospital here, and my poor mother, her sister Laurie and brother Kenny have been at his bedside the entire time.

My mom learned last week that her youngest sister, my aunt Heather, was moving back to Plattsburgh. My mom and her siblings hadn't seen Heather in years. They were expecting her on Saturday but had yet to hear from her by that evening until we got a phone call from my cousin Katrina, who is aunt Heather's oldest daughter of four girls. Katrina was hysterical, looking for my mom. Aunt Heather's 38-year-old heart had stopped beating, she was in the emergency room, and she wasn't expected to make it. At the time of this phone call, Katrina didn't know my poor mother was directly above her visiting her critically ill father. My stepfather, Gary, reached my mom immediately to tell her the news. Since that evening, my mom, aunt and uncle have been pacing the halls of the Intensive Care Unit between Room 4 where Pipi was recovering, and Room 14 where their sister was dying. Poor Pipi was still so out of it that he didn't full comprehend that it was his daughter down the hall fighting for her life. That is, until he was brought down this evening in a wheelchair to say goodbye to her and was told it was Heather.

Aunt Heather passed away tonight. She would have been severely brain damaged had she lived, and no one deserves a life like that. It had been decided she would not be kept alive past 9:00 this evening, but she went on her own shortly after as she began failing very suddenly shortly beforehand. Her daughters and their families were there also, and I do hope they got to say goodbye to their mother.

Go hug your children if you have them, and please keep my family in your thoughts and prayers during this very, very sad and difficult time.