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GRACE'S CONDITION
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Grace Marie Hartman
b. February 18, 1919
d. May 1, 2003
84 years, 2 months, and 11 days
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I have some pictures of Grace on the mac.com website. It's http://homepage.mac.com/jonsan. I took some more recent pictures but she didn't look well in them and I didn't want to save them or remember her that way. The one shown here was taken in August of 2002. "Click" on it to enlarge it.
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This cancer thing was diagnosed about May of 2002 although, undoubtedly, it started long before then. Grace is now bedridden, has a catheter inserted, and is on a lot of pain medication, morphine being one of the medications.
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April 21, 2003: Pastor Leonard DeWitt, the now retired pastor from our church, Ventura Missionary Church, came by this afternoon to give Grace communion.
April 22: Things about the same. Grace has been on the hospice program for about eight weeks now and we have received a great deal of help from them.
April 26: Yesterday Grace looked like she had taken a turn for the worse and that her time might be best measured in terms of hours. But today she seems to have revived considerably and she still is relatively pain free.
April 27: She's better than Friday but not as good as yesterday. She continues to be more and more "out-of-it" but her heart is like that old John Cameron Swayze Timex: It takes a lickin' but keeps on tickin'. We're all hoping and praying for her release. I don't think she could make or receive a phone call anymore but she does seem to rally a bit now and then.
April 28: About the same.
April 29: About the same, maybe a little worse.
April 30: Fairly comtatose now. Probably only three to five
days before she "graduates to Heaven", as our pastor
likes to say.
May 1: Condition worsening. That "rattle" or "gurgling" has
started. Sounds awful. Her eyes open occasionally but
I sort of doubt that she is really seeing anything.
We're hoping for her release any minute.
9:05 P.M. Grace is gone!
MAY 2, 2003: It's one of those days of tears and laughter as we recall our memories of Grace but rejoice in her entry into Heaven. Many calls to make, details to take care of today. Grace had preplanned everything about a year ago so that made it much easier. She will be cremated and then her ashes buried at Laureldale Cemetery in Temple, Pa. We checked into airfares, etc and I think we have about decided to drive, take our time, do a little vacationing along the way and also along the way back. Plans still not firmed up. No date decided on for any graveside memorial in Temple with Pastor Schaefer. We really had a tremendous amount of help from the Livingston Memorial Visiting Nurse Association, materially, physically and emotionally.
May 3rd: We've made our plans now. We got a good deal from American where we had a lot of frequent flyer miles earned. We leave here May 12th. We will have a graveside service at Laureldale Cemetery May 14th at ll A.M. (That date and time has now been confirmed by the cemetery). Pastor Schaefer will officiate. Then we leave May 23rd. There will be something afterward, somewhere. We're planning on putting something in the local newspaper next week.
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