year in review: april 2007

april
it still hurts

this month started out rough & it went downhill from there. on the first i found out that my grandmother, who turned 94 in march, was taken by ambulance to the icu. sh had just been moved from her home of 60 years into a home/facility, was hospitalized. by that monday night, she was gone. all the other relatives were there in the hospital in her last moments & all i had was a letter i'd written the previous week. (we had exchanged at least weekly letters for the past year or two.) even though it's been 8 months, i still get teary when i think of her and as i type this. i flew home for the funeral; it took place in a beautiful old, country church that my grandma helped to found & where my parents were married 32 years ago. and one of my classmates from hs helped to arrange everything at the funeral home. it was odd to see him as an adult because he was always such an ornery kid & now he's married with a baby (or two as i write this) and holding a very grown-up job.

i got back in time for easter service with s & brunch buffet with his family. also this month, my coworker mistakenly drank bleach at work. they were cleaning a pitcher & left it on the counter, looking like it was filled with water, so she poured herself a glass. good times. she was fine, but they did a unsedated endoscopy on her after hours to make sure there was no damage.

mandy & tom visited from nashville and got to meet s, along with his brother who was in town the same weekend. s even treated us all to dinner at givanni's. very generous of him, since he didn't arrive until after we'd finished the appetizer (he was out of town at monthly drill for nt'l guard). on a less exciting note, we also had to call the cops on my crazy upstairs neighbor lady. for the past few months, i/we'd sporadically heard shouting, screaming and stomping coming from her apartment. then it escalated to 4 nights in a row of ever-more threats. basically we could only ever hear her, so i don't know how the guy put up with it, not responding to the "i'm warning you; give me my money; get a lawyer; you're not walking away from this" bullshit. so s called the cops when it was after 10pm and showed no signs of letting up. after they banged on her door & had a little talk with her i didn't hear anymore tantrums. i really didn't want to be around if it escalated to a true domestic disturbance.

those were the most significant events of the month that i can recall since my grandmother's death still affects me strongly & surpasses anything else that happened.