This week’s post will be a little different. These are few of the personal details I didn’t include in the original updates. The reasons I include them now is to have a written record for our children of the last weeks of their mother’s time here on earth and to share with all of you how she spent her time when not at the doctors office.


17OCT – 11 days left with her

Karen and I, invited her whole family (all that live in the area) over for a cookout. Though she was very tired and nauseated, she baked a pound cake and organized most of the event. After dinner her brother in law, Keith, in town from Alaska, cut her long hair short as shown in the picture you see at the beginning of the blog.

The reason Karen decided to cut her hair was she was anticipating taking a new chemotherapy (Taxol) that would most likely cause the loss of her hair. She didn’t want her hair to be “wasted” so she gathered her long beautiful blond hair into a pony tail and had it cut off. She then carefully dried, wrapped and placed it in an envelope for mailing. It was still sitting where she left it, needing to be mailed when she was called Home. The children and I are planning to mail it eventually. Honoring her wishes, it will be going to Locks of Love whose mission is to return a sense of self, confidence and normalcy to children suffering from hair loss by utilizing donated ponytails to provide the highest quality hair prosthetics to financially disadvantaged children. She was so pleased with her “new dew” as she called it, and yes all the curls were 100% natural.

18OCT – 10 days left with her

We had big plans for our vacation which due to Karen losing the use of her right eye didn’t go at all as we had planned. So we decided to make the most of the day together as a family (our bunch of 7) with what we could do instead of spending anymore time pining for where we thought we would be.

The day began with breakfast at Cracker Barrel. After breakfast, Karen planning to live not die any time soon (more about that later), set about shopping for materials needed to make Christmas gifts for family and friends. She went to Linens n Things, Michaels and Office Depot. She walked all over the place with a least one sometimes more than one child in tow. Those materials sit even now in various stages of completion with her notes neatly written beside some of them.

Our day was interrupted by a planned doctor visit for a blood test to determine kidney function. J.D. escorted his mother to the test and I gave the other children a tour of all the places Karen and I been over the course of her care.

Afterward we went to the mall (first time in over a year we went to the mall as a family). Karen went to some of her favorite shops, Great American Cookie Company, William-Sonoma to buy and ice cream scoop. We rounded out our day by having dinner at Chic-fil-a.

21Oct – 7 days left with her

Karen's family gathered after church for dinner. It would also be the last time we attended church together.

22Oct – 6 days left with her

The doctor visit you know about. What you don’t know about is our dinner at The Cheesecake Factory with some of our family. Karen almost always ordered just an appetizer and then only ate half, but I can still see the smile on her face as she enjoyed the fried macaroni and cheese.

23Oct – 5 days left with her

The day that would have been her dad’s 68th birthday, was spent with her sister from Alaska’s family and ended with pizza from Papa John’s. Karen's brother-in-law Keith and nephew Morgan were headed back to Alaska the next day. They didn't know this would be the last time they were spend with her this side of Heaven.

24Oct- 4 days left with her

One of three doctor visits, where I didn’t take Karen since she was diagnosed. Since this visit was only for testing, she told me to go to work. A friend took Karen to get fluids in an effort to protect her kidneys prior to the MRI & MRA. Afterwards they met her sister Leslie (from Alaska) at the mall for lunch, Karen had Chic-fil-a. They went to Cinnabon and Godiva chocolate store. Karen told me about the best strawberry she had in recent memory. She also told me not to be shocked when I got the bill because it was also the most expensive strawberry she had ever eaten. I received the bill after she died. It was a $6.90 strawberry but hearing the enjoyment in her voice made it worth every cent.

25Oct- 3 days left with her

Lunch at Chic-fil-a. A kid’s nugget meal was all she could eat. She was always an inexpensive date, her entire lunch cost $3.62. On the way home, it was almost an hours drive without traffic and this ride was filled with traffic making the trip more like an hour and half, we stopped for dessert at you guessed it Chic-fil-a where Karen had a brownie a- la-mode. I never grasped how a woman who could bake mouth watering goodies could enjoy eating those things. No offense to my friends at Chic-fil-a, there are many good things at your store, that’s just not one of them in my opinion.

26Oct – 2 days left with her

We of course were up early as you can read in the update posted early on the 27Oct. We had brunch at Mimi’s Café. Karen ordered one of their very delicious breakfast muffins and ate only half of it. I had no idea that was the last breakfast we’d eat together.

In next week’s post, I hope to share some of the events that occurred after she went to the hospital for the last time. Between now and then I hope the count down of days I included in this post, speaks to you as it has me. Our time together here on earth is precious and life can change in an instant. Yes, Karen was sick but I had no idea she would leave me so quickly. Based on all the projects she recently started and the packages of thread and patterns still arriving at our home she wasn’t planning on leaving so soon either. When you stop for a moment to think about it, none of us really know when our time here on earth will be coming to an end. What we can know for certain is how we will spend eternity. It’s my hope you have that assurance.

Until next time…