Grandma Passed Away and JSL is sick

Yesterday, JSL felt warm. We checked his temperature and it was high. We gave him Motrin and Tylenol but that didn’t take his fever down. Worried about another febrile seizure, we prepared to take him to Urgent Care. We were almost ready to go when the phone rang. It was my parents. Now, my parents don’t observe Shabbat as much as I do, but they *NEVER* call during Shabbat. The minute I saw their number come up on the caller ID, I knew it was bad news.

[thumb id=703]B got on the phone and talked with them. They told her that they were sitting down eating lunch with my grandmother when she said she wasn’t feeling well. She took another bite, then began to shake. My mother took her hand and she passed away. My parents called 911 but my grandmother was already gone by that point. Besides, she had a DNR. The fire department and ambulance left, but the police officer remained with them. My parents called the funeral home, but they refused to come get the body. They said that the coroner had to declare her dead and get the body. The coroner, however, refused to declare her dead and said her doctor had to do it. He was on vacation so they had trouble reaching her. This continued on for hours (hours that my father had to sit with the dead body of his mother in his house) until they got the doctor on the phone. The doctor declared her dead. The coroner said that the funeral home needed to pick up the body. When the funeral home still tried to insist that the coroner needed to get the body, the police officer got on the phone and ordered them to pick up the body.

Grandma was my last surviving grandparent. She was 94 years old, so she had a nice, long life. I have many great memories of her growing up. I’ve also taken it upon myself to collect the hundreds of photographs that she left behind and scan them in so that everyone in the family can have copies. (I’ll probably use a service like Scan My Photos.)

We finally did get to Urgent Care and found out that JSL has an ear infection. We got him antibiotics but even that, along with Motrin and Tylenol (dosed out every 2 hours last night), didn’t get his fever to drop. As it stands now, the funeral will be on Monday morning so I’m leaving today. B, JSL, and NHL will go to stay with B’s parents while I’m gone. I’m not entirely comfortable leaving them with JSL sick like this, but I also don’t want to miss my grandmother’s funeral. Hopefully, JSL will feel better by the time I get back on Tuesday.