Gloria

Gloria, as I mentioned previously, had been battling gall bladder cancer since last July.  She had been undergoing chemo pretty much continuously since then.  Her energy levels ebbed and flowed throughout the treatments with some better weeks/days than others.  But she had decided that the treatments outweighed the side effects, and she kept at it.  We had been planning a surprise 75th birthday party for her in November – family from Minnesota, New York, Florida, and Texas were all planning to come.  But that is not what was in the books. 

Jason had come out and stayed overnight with her on his way out to a work conference (August 11th).  Then, he stayed on the following Friday before heading back to Minnesota (August 17th).  Jen had been planning to come to stay with Gloria for about a week, just to help out as she could.  She was going to fly in on Sunday (the 18th), but because flights were cheaper on to fly on Saturday, she came a day early. 

On Sunday morning (the 18th), we were at church as usual.  The service had just ended when Jeremy got a phone call.  He saw it was Jen, so he took it.  Jen informed him that she had woken up and went to check on Gloria, who was not yet up.  She found her unresponsive on the floor.  Jeremy took off to be there.  I stayed back, walked outside, and collapsed in tears.  The contrast between the celebratory worship and the reality of loss was overwhelming.  I sat looking out over the playground and tried to pull it together.  Finally, I went and asked Luke for the keys to his van.  I realized I could at least go over there until Sunday school was over. 

The ambulance and paramedics were there.  The sheriff was there.  And Jen and Jeremy were there.  And it was heartbreaking. 

The assumption is she just passed quickly in the early part of the morning without explanation.  Maybe her body was just tired from all the treatments.  Maybe her heart was overwhelmed with the fluid retention in her body.  Maybe she knew she had seen all her people and she was ready to go.  We will never know, but we grieve her unexpected passing. 

I returned to church in time to get the girls from Sunday school.  Luke drove us home, and I just told them dad was with Grandma.  Oh man.  It was so hard.  He made it home shortly after us.  We sat down and shared with them what had happened.  It was so hard.  So much harder than with Maynard.  They are older, so they felt things differently and more deeply.  Plus, with Maynard, we watched as he slowly said good-bye to this world.  We knew his day was coming, and we could say good-bye.  We did not expect Gloria to go yet.  We sat together and cried and held each other.  And then we tried to be “normal” – to eat, to change clothes, to do the things that needed done.  Because the first day of school was the next day, volleyball practice was still happening that week, and you can’t just stop.

Jason basically got on a flight after just getting home.  Niki and the kids came a couple days later.  Arturo as well.  Gloria’s siblings from out-0f-state were able to get here fairly quickly as well. 

Jeremy, Jason, and Jennifer did an amazing job of communicating with everyone, making funeral arrangements, creating a memorial service, and supporting one another the best they could. 

In the midst of the grief and the details, it was nice to sit together, look through pictures, share memories, and create memories with one another. 

The calling hours were held on Thursday, August 22 at Grace Church in Wooster.

    

The burial was held prior to the service on Friday morning.  The girls didn’t want to say anything aloud, but they both chose to write a short note to Gloria that was put in the casket with her. 

   

Then, we went to the service at Grace.

    

Our family.

Madison (about a month after this) had a journal prompt for English, What is true love?  They are reading Romeo and Juliet, so that’s where the prompt originated, but as she and I were talking about what else to write, she started tearing up.  She said I want to write about Grandma, but I don’t know.  I said then, write about her.  In reality, it is a tribute to Jeremy and the love he showed to his mom in the past year in particular.  It is pretty special and spot-on.

Camps

The girls always enjoy going to Camp Luz, our (very local) church camp.  Ellie went first this year to the pre-teen camp.  She had a one friend she knew was going, but was surprised to see more familiar faces in her cabin!  Here are a few pictures from camp:

    

While Ellie was at camp, Madison and I went school shopping.  She also went tubing at Plesant Hill Lake with her friends, Gretta, Mallory, and Jaida.  And she had her first mini (unofficial) driving lesson in Lehman’s parking lot … where she learned to bike, too!  She was pretty excited about this!

Madison went the week after Ellie.  This year, she chose to do adventure camp.  Adventure camp participants attend the same camp as their peers, but they leave for part of some days to try activities off site.  So, she went biking, canoeing, and rappelling this year.  She said the activities were a lot of fun, but she missed her feet-off-the-floor recuperation time every day.  She may not do it again next year, but she was glad for the experience this year.

    

While Madison was at camp, Ellie also went school shopping.  She had two friends over, Maylynn and Alivia.  And Jeremy got tickets to go to the Guardians game – great seats and entry into the home run food area!

    

This week, we have all been spending our evenings at Scuba VBS.  The girls each volunteered to be Crew Helpers.  So, they talked to, moved with, and had fun with a small group of kids all week.  I volunteered with Christi Michaels to do the skit each night.  This was pretty fun as well.

             

We had a boardwalk theme food celebration after church.  So, we created tiny jello cup swimming pools with teddy grahams floating on lifesaver gummy inner tubes and a little umbrella above them.  It was a lot of tiny details, and we had a lot leftover, but it was fun to do.

    

4-H Projects

And the girls were at it again this year with 4-H.  It was a quick, whirlwind of projects!

Madison chose the project Clothing for Middle School.  It was an intermediate sewing project.  Although she has never done a sewing project for 4-H, she has tinkered around with sewing by watching videos and working to make a dress with Grandma Yoh.  This one required making a shirt with sleeves or a top (sleeveless) and bottoms.  Originally, she was going to make two pieces of clothing.  However, her project went into hyperspeed the night we got home from vacation.  As I was processing upcoming dates, I realized that the late judging in August (her original goal) was the same day as her first freshmen volleyball scrimmage.  So, we decided she needed to aim for early judging which was exactly 8 days from the day we figured it out!  Monday (the day after we got home) we headed to Joann Fabrics to pick out and pick up everything – pattern (only 1 piece of clothing!), fabric, thread, supplies, etc.  She chose a pattern for a flannel button-down shirt; it did not say “easy sew” on it. 

I called my mom immediately to see if she had any availability – really a lot of availability– in the next 8 days.  She said she could come on Wednesday and we would go from there.  Madison worked through finishing her book that went with the project – really a pretty antiquated book about posture, pattern texture and lines, colors, and ironing your clothes and shining your shoes.  Grandma and her worked at cutting out the pattern and sewing for 3 very long days.

         

Then, Grandma stepped aside when it came to the buttonholes.  My machine has a buttonhole function, but it didn’t want to work on our test fabric.  We were brainstorming solutions.  Because, really, if you make a beautiful button down shirt and then ruin the buttonholes, it would be devastating.  It occurred to me to call the Viking Sewing Gallery (inside of Joann Fabrics) where I got the machine and a sewing lesson (free with purchase!) to ask if they could help me.  The woman, Arnette, said to bring my machine in and the project and she would see what she could do.  So Monday morning (a day before judging), Madison and I hauled the machine into Joann’s.  Artnette had the same trouble we did with the buttonholes, but did point out that our thread was too thick… I didn’t even know there were different thread weights!  Then, she said, “I wish I could just put you on this machine with an automatic buttonholer.”  I said, “You can!”  So, she taught Madison how to use the $2000 machine to create very nice button holes and how to use the machine to also stitch on the buttons.  It was a blessing! 

    

The outcome was beautiful!

    

Judging was tough as the judge examined the shirt, asked questions from the book, and rated Madison on her very first project at an intermediate level!  She scored an Excellent!  While it was initially disappointing to her, we discussed how the rubric would reflect skills that an intermediate sewer would know – and she just didn’t know they were expected… not finishing the seams with a zig zag or surge was a major deduction.  In the end, her hard work still led to an excellent score and a shirt that she will love this fall and winter!

    

Ellie stuck with health this year, completing the project Medicine, Science, and Safety.  She took a lot of initiative to work through the book almost independently this year, asking a few questions when she had them.  She filled out things neatly and completely.  She had intentions (unlike Madison) to go to early judging.  So, when we got back from vacation the only thing she had left to do was make a poster.  She took some time to sketch out what she wanted the poster to include and how she wanted it laid out.  Then, while Madison and Grandma sewed away, I worked with Ellie to space things out and line things up on her poster.  Mariah Michaels let her use her stash of markers for the poster to create  colors that matched the theme colors of her project book – a bit of a genius idea she had! 

    

She did a great job with the judge – pointing out things she learning as the judge flipped through the book, explaining her poster thoroughly.  She scored an Outstanding at the county level. 

         

Then, on July 23, we found out that she was also selected to go to the state fair for the second year in a row!  Her judging time was the following day at 2:30 down in Columbus.  Jeremy rearranged some things at work to be able to join us, and Madison was, once again, having a ball at Camp Luz and unable to come.  We killed a little time in the science/space area prior to judging – it is in the same building and it is air conditioned, both positives! 

    

Ellie did  a good job interacting with the judge again.  But she walked away thinking she didn’t do a good job – the judge had to rephrase a couple questions and assumed because of that Ellie didn’t know her information well.  Ellie said she just didn’t understand the question the way it was worded.  It led to a good conversation about how to redirect back for clarification in those situations.  But the judge also commented that Ellie had one of the best posters she had seen all day! 

         

We spent some time roaming around, looking at things, finding Noah Michaels again, fishing, pig races, and some gyros prior to the 6:30 awards ceremony. 

              

Ellie and I also switched shoes for awhile since she forgot her casual shoes and the sandals were giving her blisters.  (Isn’t it crazy I can swap shoes with her??)

    

Ellie ended up getting Outstanding of the Day (top 20% in her project) which is pretty awesome!

         

And now, we are done.  The last thing to do is hand the projects over to the 4H advisors to display at the Wayne County Fair.