Despite the loss of my baby sister and my mother last year, my father held on strong for several months. (See "Lynda Young Tuckett" and "Ruth Wilson Young" below.) These losses hit him hard, and he was lonely especially after the loss of his wife, but his health seemed good. He was able to take care of himself and to participate in activities at Cove Point Retirement Community, where he was "mayor." And he seemed in reasonably good spirits, except for the loneliness. But I'm sure it was more challenging than I had realized.
He began to noticeably decline sometime in December. In January, my brother Daren and I tried to figure out if the problem was depression and if Dad was taking all of his pills. (It appeared he was, despite eyesight challenges that made it impossible for him to read the labels.) We had a get together when Larry visited during January. Dad was there but seemed very tired, not very sociable. Looking back, it's pretty clear the problems were really physical. He was scheduled to have blood drawn and had a doctor's appointment in May. I called to have that moved up, but the soonest we could get was in March.
Then on February 5, I got a call from Cove Point saying that Dad had collapsed when coming in from a ride in the van. He had gone to the doctor's to have his blood drawn. The trip had worn him out apparently. He was so pale and unresponsive they had called paramedics. I met them there and then met them at the emergency room, where they took him.
[more coming . . . in summary: Dad was admitted to the hospital, spent a couple of weeks there; then Orem Nursing and Rehabilitation for a couple of weeks; then Cove Point, but within a few days it was clear he wasn't up to it--plus the doctor's appointment that finally took place revealed that his kidneys were shutting down. He went to the hospital again, where we faced the fact that he wouldn't be getting better; all the siblings came at one point or another, or several points; other relatives visited. Dad was finally admitted to a hospice in Salt Lake; I had several visits with him there; Daren and Steven spent LOTS of time there.]
About 2:16 p.m. on Friday, March 27, my brother Daren called and told me Dad had died about 5 minutes before. He later told me about his last day with Dad. [more later]
Links:
the obituary--Walker Mortuary: http://www.meaningfulfunerals.net/fh/obituaries/obituary.cfm?o_id=348782&fh_id=10575
Provo Daily Herald: http://ads.heraldextra.com/articles/2009/04/01/obituaries/340919.txt --or if those go out of date, try http://english.byu.edu/faculty/youngb/Daren-Curtis-Young-obituary.doc
"guest book" comments on the obituary: http://english.byu.edu/faculty/youngb/guest-book&comments-daren-c-young.doc
the funeral program: http://english.byu.edu/faculty/youngb/Young_program-Daren_C.pdf
slide show (with musical accompaniment) showing photos of Daren from childhood onward: http://english.byu.edu/faculty/youngb/YoungDaren0409.wmv (you can either left click and wait for the slide show to load, or you can right lick and "save target as" a file on your computer)
my talk at the funeral: http://english.byu.edu/faculty/youngb/funeral-talk-daren-c-young(full).doc
my brother Daren's talk: http://english.byu.edu/faculty/youngb/daren-talk-for-dads-funeral.doc [the link is currently broken--I'm working on fixing it]
(talks from my other siblings will be available soon--I hope)
3 comments:
So sad to hear the news. Wish I could be there.
For how many years did Grandpa teach elementary school?
He taught for 34 years. You'll find more information on his teaching career in the obituary I'm now linking to the blog post.
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