Putting Things Into Perspective

So I survived F2 Squared - that is, two F2 Tornadoes swept through central Illinois Sunday night and early Monday morning. Wow. Talk about not giving a flip whether I was cast at Muni or not (FYI I was NOT cast in anything). Thank God my family and Michael and I escaped with minimal damage.

On Monday or Tuesday afternoon, my parents noticed that the police were knocking on their neighbor's door - my mom told my dad to tell them that they were at work. The officer said "Actually, we're looking for Georgia Hepworth". Turns out that my Grandma Sunny, who lives in Evergreen, Colorado...who is the matriarch of our family...had fallen while in the shower and had lost consciousness for a day or so, and her manager at her condo complex found her.

Her friends in Colorado had been trying to contact my mom, since we are her only immediate family left, and their phone lines were down (actually, they were just restored today), so her friend contacted the Springfield Police department, and they let them know that we had really bad storms here, and that they would come and look for her. And they did - thank God.

So we didn't think that anything was really wrong. Since my folks' neighborhood was really badly hit, I told them that I would house-sit and take care of the dogs & cats. Fun times.

So I called her last night, to make sure my dad had given me correct directons for the medications that one of her dogs is taking (of course it was wrong!), and she said that Sunny was really bad off. Big red flags went off in my head. Said she was septic, and on 4 different antibiotics, and that none were responding, and that her WBC's were sky-high. Hmmm. Let me explain, Sunny's 83. She has had a knee replacement, and 2 hip replacements. But that's it. No other health problems EVER. The most independent woman in the world...she drove a STICK shift twice a year from Colorado to Illinois...to visit her family. So I figured "Crazy Grandma Sunny" would pull through - hell...she'll be around to outlive all of us. The doctors would find the right antibiotic, and mom & dad would be back in a couple of weeks. Life as normal.

Michael went to a job interview this morning - came home very melancholy. I figured the interview had went horribly awry. He said it went OK...said he talked to my brother-in-law, Dale, who works for this company. Grandma Sunny died this morning around 6:00 am.

Losing a Grandparent is nothing new to me. I lost my grandfather in 2004. Her husband died 9 years ago. But this has hit me like a ton of bricks. My mother's family is gone. I lost someone who loved me just as much as my own mother does. Katie and I would go stay with her for 6 weeks each and every summer as we were growing up. We were her only grandchildren - and she was a beautiful, wonderful woman.

God, this is hard. God, do I miss her.