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Wednesday, July 8, 2015

More Sad News

I'm sad to share with you that the W. family has lost yet another great woman: Eric's grandmother ("Gramz") passed away on Friday evening, July 3rd. This was pretty sudden and unexpected, considering that as of late May she was still working as a sample lady at Publix and playing shuffleboard regularly. However, about the time that Toni took a turn for the worse, we learned that Gramz had cancer. They did some tests and we were waiting on the results just days before Toni's condition really got bad. A large part of the reason we went down to St. Pete right away upon learning of Toni's decline was also because we knew Gramz would be waiting on test results and would have to be making decisions as far as course of treatment going forward, and we wanted to be there to support her.

Gramz was stuck in the hospital with pneumonia during our initial stay, but was discharged the day after Toni passed. However, after a couple of days at home she realized she was too weak to manage on her own and went back to the emergency room. After some time back in the hospital (including while the memorial services for her daughter were taking place) she was moved to a rehab facility and we thought things were looking up, but all of a sudden, they were looking way down. We learned that the cancer was a particularly bad cancer and was everywhere. All of a sudden, Gramz seemed to age 20 years and they told us she probably had 7-10 days left and they were calling in Hospice. Just a couple of days later, she passed away—only 20 days after her daughter passed and roughly a month since we even learned she was sick.

Needless to say, the family is reeling a bit. Two great women in less than a month—it's a lot to take in.

We were planning to go back down to St. Pete this weekend anyway, because E.J.'s birthday party is on Sunday. Now we will also be attending Gramz's memorial service on Saturday as well. Eric is writing his second eulogy in just three weeks. It's hard to believe it's all really happening. Again. So soon.

We'll be out of town for just shy of a week, though I have some recap blog posts lined up in the queue to publish in our absence so I can stay on top of things. In addition to this little trip, we also have a much larger road trip planned for later in the month so I am trying to avoid getting behind before that extended time off.

In the meantime, please keep the family in your prayers as everyone tries to process and move forward. It's very surreal.

Our Gramz

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