My Grandpop passed away this Sabbath afternoon. Ted and I were in the room with my grandmother when he passed. It went against every instinct I had (or that I've learned in the last 3 and a half years) to sit there and watch life pass. But that is what my grandmother wanted, and that was the best for my grandpop. He had a stroke two weekends ago, was in a coma the following Monday morning, and my family made the decision to withdraw care exactly one week ago. We knew it was going to happen, but it feels so horrible now that it has. My grandmother has been so strong, but this afternoon as I held her hand on the way back to her apartment, she looked at me and said "I think his parents would have been proud of how peaceful their son looked when he passed. I think they would have been proud of how I took care of him." That statement brought me to tears, because I know that as a wife all I want is to take care of my husband the way his mom took care of him. And for my 85 year-old grandmother to wonder if she would've had the approval of his parents, who have long ago passed, made her seem so much younger and so much more vulnerable. I love her, and she did the right thing by her husband. She loved him fully and gave him a wonderful life.
Here are some photos of the two of them taken about a year ago at the park. Other photos of my Grandpop are on Richard's blog. He will be sorely missed in my heart. If anybody has built my self-esteem up, with no apology, it was that man. He made me feel like I could do anything as a physician and he trusted my instincts far more than I could. He wanted me to succeed so badly, and I only wish I could look out there on graduation day and see his face. But, then again, heaven will far surpass that wish.
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