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Across the Fence:  My DEER Daddy  |
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
 Posted - Jan 06 2006 : 05:57:29 AM
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my heart is touched by the sweet e-mails i am receiving asking about my dear dad. i had posted that a few months ago, my dad, who has lived 91 years on this 'ole earth .. entered Hospice Care. Hospice does not give a 'date' they expect someone to survive .. but hospice and the doctors and nurses surely gave us the impression that it was fairly imminent with my dad. I rushed 'home' to say my goodbyes .. to hold him and tell him how very much i loved him.
Early December, HOspice said that they did doubt he would survive to have a final Christmas. WELL .. on Christmas day, my sweet sister, Shasha, bundled him up .. got him and his wheel chair into her car and drove 2 hours to take him to the family Christmas celebration at his 86 year old sister's home (my Auntie Em) .. who is one of the two precious aunts who raised my brother, sister and me. She lives in a two-flights-up town-house .. so a niece and nephew .. just picked up that wheel chair with daddy as a passenger and toted him up that skinny, windy stairway! I hear that he 'ate like a big dog' .. and was very awake and aware for most of the party. As always, he reveled in opening Christmas gifts .. and i LOVE that Auntie Em gave him a CLOCK! HA! Hank and i said we should have given him a Calendar .. or a two year subscription to his favorite magazine!
Oh Lordy! I have so many wonderful stories to tell of my dad's very different life. ... And will from time to time. I will tell you now that he is a profile in courage and strength, perseverance and humor and most of all ... of love.
(When i was a very small child, my dad was diagnosed with schizophrenia .. and lived his life with this disease). Ahhhhhhh .. but he was 'crazy like a fox'. An entire and very interesting book could be written of his adventures .. if we knew them all!
Last Sunday night, a huge DEER broke through a large plate-glass window at his nursing home .. and ran all the way to the very back of the nursing home to my dad's room!
One of our farmgirls, Sue, wrote to me that i often refer to him as 'my DEAR Dad' .. and she believes that this DEER is a 'sign' .. perhaps an angel come to guide my daddy to other pastures. Isn't that a most beautiful thought.
Monday morning at 4:00 a.m. .. my sister received a phone call from the Nursing Home to say that daddy's temperature had risen to 103.
He has once again stabilized .. but is very frail and thin .. and only the 'deer' knows his date of departure.
Although his body is frail and thin .. i still see an endless depth of stories in his eyes.
My DEER DADDY
True Friends, Frannie |
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greyghost
True Blue Farmgirl
650 Posts
Lynn
Summerville
Georgia
USA
650 Posts |
Posted - Jan 06 2006 : 10:48:48 AM
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In May of 03, I had a bad feeling about how my grandpa was doing so I took the soonest flight I could to Illinois to see him. Hospice and my grandma had him in a bed in the TV room, which had a window near a sugar maple tree. In that tree was a robin's nest with three blue eggs in it. Someone in my family said that robins often build nests near the window of someone close to be departed.
Grandma said Grandpa had been happy to see those birds outside his window, he had enjoyed watching them before he broke his hip. That same window is the one he often sat at, kneeling on the couch like a little kid, watching the snow fall. Grandpa loved snow.
After his passing just an hour and a half after I got to my grandparents house, we had to go to the funeral home to make arrangements. As I sat there waiting, I looked out the window, and there in the boxwoods was another robin's nest, with some bright blue eggs. |
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Fabulous Farm Femmes
True Blue Farmgirl
792 Posts
Diane
Lakebay, Tacoma
WA
792 Posts |
Posted - Jan 06 2006 : 12:56:38 PM
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Well, Frannie, now I know where you get your youngish looks from....what a handsome man for his age. He doesn't look 91 at all...My Mom who is 70 this year looks much older!
Does he like getting mail/cards? If he does I would love to send him one, might cheer him up to know us other kindred spirits are thinking of him. |
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country lawyer
True Blue Farmgirl
1022 Posts
1022 Posts |
Posted - Jan 06 2006 : 2:17:20 PM
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Thank you, Frannie, for sharing your Dear/Deer Daddy with us. Is that a Santa hat in the background? And, Lynn, thank you too for that special memory. Sweet, precious stories.
"All shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well."
Julian of Norwich |
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
Posted - Jan 06 2006 : 6:21:26 PM
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thanks for all your sweet words and stories ... diane that is so sweet of you .. i'll post his address if any of you sweet friends wish to remember him with a card .. wouldn't that be wonderful ... for lots of cards to arrive in these last days .. just letting him know there are loving people thinking of him. will post his address tomorrow ...
and OH MY! is that a SANTA HAT!!!
I adore how our family bought him lots of gifts .. including .. new clothes!!! (my favorite is still the clock!)
True Friends, Frannie |
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
Posted - Jan 07 2006 : 08:57:43 AM
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my dad's address is:
Robert H. Stevens
Beverly Health Care
3900 Plank Road
Fredericksburg, VA 22407
it would be so wonderful if he received lots of cards/letters just letting him know he is being thought of and prayed for. thanks farmgirlfriends! xo, frannie
True Friends, Frannie |
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junebug
True Blue Farmgirl
2421 Posts
Sue
West Plains,
Mo.
USA
2421 Posts |
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country lawyer
True Blue Farmgirl
1022 Posts
1022 Posts |
Posted - Jan 30 2006 : 2:34:06 PM
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Frannie, How is your "dear Daddy" doing?
"All shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well."
Julian of Norwich |
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Luzy
True Blue Farmgirl
922 Posts
Luanne
Pueblo
Colorado
USA
922 Posts |
Posted - Jan 30 2006 : 2:46:45 PM
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Funny, I was just thinking about DEER DADDY today too! Luzy
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May I always be the kind of person my dog thinks I am. |
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
Posted - Jan 30 2006 : 2:50:35 PM
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sweet friends .. my sister says he continues to lose weight and sleep 90 percent of the time. she does not believe the end is far. when she visits, she reads his cards to him even if he is sleeping .. and she has taped them to the wall all around his bed .. what a lovely way to leave this world .. surrounded by family and friends and thoughts of those whom he's never even met. thanks for sending cards and notes girlfriends. my sister is some day going to bundle them all up and send them to me to make a scrapbook with. xo, frannie
True Friends, Frannie |
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Across the Fence: My DEER Daddy |
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My DEER Daddy
