Sheep Guarding Llama

Friday. Today is the funeral. The weather is a lot better today than it was yesterday. People are safely able to travel. We had calling hours this afternoon before the funeral service. Tons of people came for the calling hours today. Even more people came today than yesterday.

The funeral service was really nice. They played recording of mom playing the accordian and singing some of her songs that she had written in the late 1980’s. It was a really nice service. After the service, about half of the crowd headed down to LaGrange for a pot luck dinner.

Thursday. Today is the calling hours for mom down in Perry. Dad called to tell us that he might not be able to make it down there because the weather was so bad that there was a head on collision of two tractor trailers on route 63 right in front of the house. So the roads were blocked. Min and I set out to head to Perry and the weather was just awful. It was horrible driving, heavy snow and driving wind. We were really worried that we weren’t going to make it ourselves. We got into Leicester and 20A and 39 were closed because of an accident there as well. So we had to drive way out and around to get to Pine Tavern. We eventually made it to the funeral home. Dad and my grandparents were able to make it to. I had a lot of family coming in from Ohio today in the awful weather. It took them eight hours to get in instead of the regular five.

A lot more people made it out to the calling hours than I was expecting. I wasn’t really thinking that anyone was going to come out tonight because of the weather. But lots of people came. It was really nice to see so many people coming out in the terrible weather.

Monday. This morning, dad, Dominica and I went to Perry to deal with the funeral arrangements. I was supposed to be working in Perry this morning but they ended up not needing me until Wednesday so the timing was perfect. It was good that I was able to be there to be a part of the arrangements. I think that it helped. I know that there are a lot of you that are hoping to be able to attend. The details are as follows:

Services at Eaton-Watson Funeral Home, Perry, NY

Calling Hours for Karen Lee Miller:
Thursday, Nov. 13 7:00-9:00pm
Friday, Nov. 14 1:00-3:00pm

Funeral Service
Friday, Nov. 14 3:00pm

Food at LaGrange Baptist Church following services.

After making all of the arrangement, we had errands to run around Perry. We had banking to do, mail to post and food to pick up since everyone is eating at my dad’s house this week. My grandparents are and have been staying there so it is pretty much grand central. There are a million people stoppingin there everyday. I am going to take my laptop with me tomorrow so that I can do some work on SGL while I am there and maybe get a little bit caught up. I figure that at least that will give me something to do. The Lord really watched over us because Min and I have this entire week and next off from work because we had been planning on being on our honeymoon during this time. Otherwise, we would have been so busy that we wouldn’t have been able to easily deal with everything.

This afternoon, I came back over to my house and Eric came down from Rochester and we played a little AoE2. I needed the break from everything. AoE2 is so intense that it really forces you to pay attention to it. After the game, Min, dad, all of my grandparents, my aunt and my uncle all came up to Geneseo and we went to the Omega Grill for dinner. Min and I haven’t really gone out to eat for so long that it feels weird. We had a really nice dinner on Saturday night but that was a special occasion, not just dinner out. After dinner, Min was really tired and she just watched a little “Are You Being Served?” and went to bed really early. I ended up staying up late into the night watching DVDs and playing with the hamster. Mr. Humphries really likes getting a ton of attention and will spend the entire night making you get him out of his cage if you let him. He loves to be held now and he especially like it when we take him out of his cage (using a Betty Crocker’s Cookbook) and carry him over to the futon. Then he runs all around on the futon exploring. He is so hyper. He just runs and runs and runs. He will stay up all night playing if you let him.

Speaking of rodents, I caught another mouse this morning. That is, I believe, our twelfth mouse caught to date and removed from the house. I can’t believe how many there are. They are so cute though. Continue reading “November 10, 2003”

Sunday. Today has been the hardest day of my life. This morning at 8:28 am, my mother lost her long and hard battle with lung cancer. I haven’t felt that I was to talk about this fight on SGL over the past several years but now I find that this is probably the best way to let everyone know what is going on in my life. This past week has been so hard for all of us. After the wedding, five weeks ago yesterday, mom began deteriorating very quickly. It was obvious to all of us that she worked very hard to be able to make it to the wedding; it really meant a lot to her and to us to have her there. This final week she has been very scared of suffication and has had to have been on medication to keep her from panicing.

We were all very glad that Min and I had made the decision to postpone our honeymoon, we would have been on the plane just about landing in Florida when mom passed away. We wouldn’t have spent the entire day flying without even getting to leave the airport and we wouldn’t have been able to spend the day with the family. It was important that we were there to be with dad and everyone. We are hoping to take our honeymoon either in December or in February. We haven’t decided what we are going to try to do yet. We will know soon, I think. There are no funeral arrangements yet, that will be decided tomorrow morning so I will let everyone know then what is going on. A lot of my family is planning on coming in from Ohio so it will probably be late in the week.

I just want to let everyone know how much their support has meant to me and to Min over the past few years as we have gone through this. You all mean so much to us.

Saturday. Min and I got up very late today. I stayed up very late last night playing AoE2 with Arti so that I would be able to sleep with Dominica part of the night. She worked overnight at the hotel. So we didn’t get up until around 2:00. I did some work around the house and then drove over to see my mom for a little while. She opened her good eye twice when I first got there and I am pretty sure that she knew that I was there. She is in a lot of pain and things are getting really hard for her. She is no longer able to swallow or to get enough air to breathe, even with all of the O2 being pumped into the air. She is hoping to be able to go home soon.

Min and I went out to a late anniversary dinner at the Valley Inn in Warsaw. Eric told me about this place and I have been dying to try it out. The food was amazing. This is actually an all our fancy Ithaca style restaurant right in Warsaw! Of all places. We couldn’t believe that this great little place was hidden there in the valley right on Route 20A. I have gone past this restaurant a million times and never even known that it was there. We were very impressed. I am sure that we will be eating there plenty in the future.

After dinner, we drove over to Perry and hung out with Nate and Tammy for a little while at Tammy’s house. We haven’t had a chance to see them since the wedding so it was nice to visit.