What a month and a half it's been! After a long year of suffering from complications of Parkinson's Disease and esophogus spasms, my Mom passed away on May 14, and just a short week later, my husband's best friend passed away much too soon from stage four cancer that had been diagnosed less than 2 months.... He was ready for the fight, was undergoing radiation, hoping to start chemo. I had decided to make him a quilt to have while undergoing his treatments.
Needless to say, Mom's illness had put several delays in my sewing. In the week I took off as bereavement leave, as some needed sewing therapy, I put my focus into working on Wayne's quilt, so that he would have it. Wayne and my husband shared a love of cars, hotrods, classics, and streetrods. They had spent many an hour in each other's garages, either working on a project or "bench racing" as they used to call it.
I was working on his quilt the moring that my husband called me from the hospital to say that they needed me to come witness some paperwork, Wayne was going on hospice, there was nothing more they could do, his disease was so agressive, and they could not get a handle on his blood clots, which meant they couldn't do chemo.
That was on Tuesday morning. I worked the rest of that day and most of the day Wednesday, piecing and quilting. I finished at 11 pm on Wed, with the binding. We went early on Thursday morning, around 8:30 to see how Wayne was doing and to deliver his quilt.
As we walked into their house, Wayne was laying on the couch, his oxyge mask laying on the floor next to him. He had decided just an hour sooner, that he didn't want to prolong his suffering any longer. His wife Sam, and another good fried were sitting next to him, watching him try to get into a comfortable position.
What a change in his condition in just a day. He was unresposive the entire two hours we stayed to visit, but Sammy just clutched that quilt in her arms ad said how much Wayne would love it.
We stopped by twice more on Thursday, it was at 5 am on Friday morning that we received the call that Wayne was no longer in pain, and had passed. He had at one point opened his eyes and talked to Sammy for just a minute or two, but he had been able to see his quilt for a brief time before he went.
Now, even 3 weeks later, it is difficult to type this. Wayne we miss you!
Denise, I'm so sorry to hear about your friend Waynes death. I remember you saying that you were going to work on his quilt. It turned out wonderful... you did a great job on it and Im sure Sam will love having it.
ReplyDelete