102

Can you imagine being on this earth for 102 years? Can you imagine the things you would have seen in that time? Can you imagine having survived well beyond your husband, all of your siblings, your own daughter, and your own granddaughter? All that heartache in one life. Oh but all the joys too. Giving birth to a 10 pound baby girl. Moving to the United States from England to give that girl a better life and accomplishing it. Watching that daughter graduate from high school. Go on to get married. Have six amazing grandchildren. Then 18 great grandchildren. And even being around to see two great great grandchildren! That's a lot more than most ever get to see in a lifetime.

Joe's grandmother is 102 years old. And this is her life in a nut shell. She is a Scottish woman who married an Englishman and they had a daughter together (Joe's mother) in 1935. Her husband passed away and when their daughter was just 3 years old they came over to Ellis Island to start a new life in America. It was a good life. She worked in a hospital for many years giving her daughter whatever she could. Her daughter grew up and graduated high school and went on to marry and have a child. That marriage did not work out and she divorced and remarried a man whom she had five more children with. Joe was the last of those six children in all. Sadly in 1985 Joe's mother died of COPD, but Nanny plugged on. The grandchildren all grew up and began having children of their own. Then the oldest granddaughter died in 2006 ironically of the same disease that killed her mother. Nanny still plugged on though.

Now we are facing the very real possibility of losing Nanny. We got a phone call from Joe's brother yesterday that she wasn't doing too well. After the girls got out of school we drove down to see her. She slept the whole three hours we were there. On oxygen and morphine. Very shallow breaths with large gasps for air every so often. She's so frail and skinny. Not at all the woman Joe brought me to meet almost 11 years ago. At 91 she was still a very vibrant active woman. And now sadly she just laid there looking so helpless. All of Joe's siblings (except of course his oldest who has passed away and his brother in CA) were there last night. As we all left they all leaned in for possibly one last kiss and each of them whispered a little something in her ear. Probably much like what Joe said to her which was, "It's okay to let go Nanny." We just want her to be free of pain. She has lived a long and good life. Nanny, go home now to be with your husband, your daughter, your siblings, your granddaughter, and your 2 great grandchildren who have died before you. It's time Nanny. It's okay, we'll be okay!