Tired Week

What a week....we had the funeral for Jim on Tuesday. It was a great service with tremendous music. During the visitation Jim's CD's were playing in the background of the songs he sang and recorded. There was a new appreciation for the deepness and tone of his voice as we visited with relatives and friends. His son and daugher-in-law were able to come down from Tennessee and it was actually the first time I'd ever met them...very nice people and easy to talk to. During the service, one young man named Ben Waites sang. He knew Jim and is going to Louisiana College but didn't hesitate to skip his classes to come to the services. He's also confined to a wheelchair, unable to get much use from his arms and legs but he has the most incredible voice. He sang two songs that were so fitting for the service. Jim would have loved it. Then there were two very young ladies who play violin and had recorded a few songs with Jim years ago. They played a most beautiful duet that really set the mood. Since then Jim's body was cremated and he's at home now while Mom decides, in her own time, what she will do with the remains.

I got the shoes that I'm going to use in the Marine Corps Marathon on the 31st: a pair of Asics Gel-Nimbus 12, size 11, with the proper insoles. Tested them for six miles yesterday morning and they felt great. Even my leg behaved itself, enabling me to go at marathon pace. Tomorrow is my last long training run, about 26 miles, and I'll see how they feel on my footsies for almost five hours.

Here's what's going to get me through my first marathon.
Pretty, ain't they?

Probably because of all the things we've had to do in regards to the funeral and arrangements and such, that's why both Jonnene and I are just worn out. Plus work and the bathroom renovations....oh, yeah, new photo below!

The tile work is done and grout has been applied, as seen in the picture above. Monday the tile will be cleaned and sealant applied. Hopefully, by Tuesday the toilet will be in place as well as the faucet/levers for the sink. We still have to choose cabinet door handles and drawer pulls plus determine the size of the mirror over the sink...we're reusing the mirror from the original bathroom but it'll have to be cut down to a size that'll work in the new place. But so far it's looking really good!

Shower Updates

The tiling on the bathroom shower has begun! Photos below....

The funeral services for Jim have been scheduled for Tuesday at 1 pm. We spent a couple of hours at the funeral home taking care of paperwork and becoming familiar with how the whole process works. He will be cremated and that procedure was described to us so we'd know what was happening. It all took over 2 hours to get most everything arranged and it seems to be the way we want it. Later I sent a photo of Jim and a written obituary to both the funeral home and the church for them to use in the paper and the service program.

Only did mile repeats today for my marathon training. Next Sunday is 26 miles and then I start tapering. I also signed up Jonnene for the 10K race being held there the same day. Should be fun!

The tiling has started in the shower. The young man doing this is very meticulous in how he sets up the tiles and the details he has created to make this shower a bit unique. He knows his stuff.

A closeup of the back corner of the shower. You can see the little triangular seat that's been placed in the corner. Normally this would be bigger but we were concerned that we needed as much stand-up space in the shower as we could get so it's sized enough to allow one to sit on it but not for long. It's mainly to let Jonnene prop her leg up to shave. The shower floor tile has not been installed yet. The horizontal band with the multi-colored small stones come from an Australian company. The green "spots" on the tiles are tile spacers that'll be removed once the tiles have set.

Jim Parker - RIP

My stepfather, Jim Parker, passed away last night. It was a surprise or maybe it wasn't a surprise. He had been in two hospitals over the last five weeks after surgery to try to find out why he was having breathing difficulties. It was pretty much determined that he had fibrosis (can't remember the proper name) that may have been the result of being exposed to asbestos in his younger years working in construction and in housing units that he helped maintain for the city. From what I know about asbestos exposure, it is a nasty way to live after it makes itself known. There is no cure.

Both he and Mom had their surgeries the same day. She had gone in to repair a broken wrist, just day surgery. Jonnene drove her to the clinic for her procedure and I drove Jim over to LSUMC for his surgery. I hate, now, thinking that when we drove away from their house that it would be the last time Jim would ever see it. I had a suspicion of the possibility but I was hoping for the best. In fact, all during the time Jim suffered through the recovery from the surgery I felt he would get to go home at some point, even as late as yesterday afternoon. This past week had started hopeful as he was being weaned from his oxygen and starting some therapy. He was happy to get out of that hospital bed and move around a little bit. But Friday morning his CO2 levels were very high and it was hard to wake him. He was put back on oxygen in an attempt to purge the CO2's out of his blood.

Jonnene went up to check on him during her lunch hour and he was rousing some, recognized her being there. When Mom had gotten the news that morning she was upset but relieved some when she got Jonnene's call and update on his condition. I went up there to see him later in the afternoon and Mom had already been there for a couple of hours. His breathing was labored and you could hear him trying to cough up the gunk in his lungs but he didn't have the lung capacity to get enough air to cough it up at all. We were able to talk to him, he wanted to know where his glasses were but didn't want to put them on. Mom and I talked about things regarding Jim and his condition plus some other things.

I left around 4:40 pm to go pick up a couple of items at Target and I thought he was going to improve after he'd had the weekend to recover a bit. I was already thinking we'd get him out of the hospital for a day over the next week. He looked so sad and so tired...we knew that the only thing he wanted was to just go home, even for a short while. Was that so much to want?

Anyway, Mom left soon after I did. She gave Jim a kiss, he kissed her back, and they told each other that they loved each other. She went to the grocery store to get a few things.

I was home with Jonnene when we got the call around 5:45 pm to come back to the hospital because there had been a change in Jim's condition. That's not good news. Then Mom called, upset. She was still in her car when she got the call and wanted to know if we knew anything. We didn't and soon we were on our way back to Willis-Knighton.

When we had gotten those calls the staff on Jim's floor was working to resuscitate Jim. His nurse, Jonathan, had been at the front desk making notes of Jim's condition by checking the monitor there. Jonathan told us later that as he looked at the screen Jim went from having a pulse to virtually no pulse, just like that. It stunned Jonathan for a second and he and others were in Jim's room in seconds since it was just 15 feet away. They tried for 15 minutes to bring him back. We met Mom in the parking lot and went upstairs where they told us he was gone.

So, anyway, this bear of a man who liked to sing and dress as Santa Claus for kids was gone. Now we have to deal with the funeral arrangements and trying to keep Mom in one piece. To say she is sad is an understatement. At the time of this writing there are no plans in place but we'll take care of most of that later today.

I had been hoping we could sneak him home for a while to see his dogs and be in familiar surroundings. I don't think the remainder of his life would have been of any kind of quality that would remotely resemble anything good. At least he's not in pain anymore and the last 26 years with Mom was probably the next closest thing to heaven he could have ever wished for. Mom's face was the last one he saw and I think that would satisfy him.