my grandmother

I don't have time to write a really long post right now because it's almost time for work. I'll tell the detailed version of the story later on.

On Monday my maternal grandmother died, in New Jersey. I went to visit her. But I didn't get to speak with her, because she went into a coma and never woke up, and she was barely alive for several hours and finally died as I arrived at the hospital.

A lot of the family had gone to visit her, and they kept telling her that Nicole was on the way. But I got stuck in a huge traffic jam near Philadelphia because of road construction, and then I got lost, oddly enough, because I was too busy talking on the phone to my uncle about how to get to the hospital, and wasn't paying attention to where I was driving. So I got lost because he was telling me how to get there. That would've been funny, except for the circumstances.

I had decided already that she would probably die before I got there, so I was resigned to it. I was going anyway. I didn't rush.

My uncle called my cell phone when I was in the lobby of the hospital. He mentioned out loud that Nicole had arrived, that I was there. She died very quickly after hearing that - I could make a joke that perhaps I just have that effect on people. They had seen signs that she could hear what they were saying - every time someone spoke to her, her breathing rate (shown on a monitor) would go up, so they explained it by saying that she probably understood that I had arrived, and I was safe, and she did not need to wait any longer. It didn't really matter when she died, because she was never going to speak again.

I have heard stories before about people postponing their own death for a little while because they were waiting for something, waiting for the right moment. Since I haven't seen people die - in fact, I don't think I've ever seen someone die, I've only seen them AFTER they died - then I really don't know how often that happens. It sounds plausible to me.

Well, I have to go to work. I'll tell the rest of it later.

Oh, also, I have one of my top ten worst facial sunburns of my life, as a result of this trip. That's because I decided to go to Six Flags, and then the beach, while I was in New Jersey, and I was outdoors from about 9:45 AM until maybe 5:00, and then after that, I drove my car westwards into the setting sun for the rest of the day. My face is now hot pink. I hate the color hot pink more than almost any other color on earth.

So that's what happened this weekend and the past couple days.