So, what's new? Well. A lot. Bruce's mom decided to go on a bingo trip, which we were all hoping she would enjoy. What happened is that she ended up fainting in a casino and was hospitalized in a different state. Bruce's sister had to fly out and bring her home. And Inez (Bruce's mom) ended up in the hospital at home too. Finally it got grave enough that Bruce flew to FL to be with her. He was there 2 weeks. He offered to stay with her and he would have done that till she died, however many years she had left because Bruce LOVES his mom. They did butt heads though. Finally she told him to go home because his life was here and he needed to get back to work. I was touched. It would have been so easy for her to keep him and she craves his company. When he got home he was constantly on the phone. She was in and out of the hospital, and it was more in than out. I had offered to go to help her and when she went into the hospital again Bruce and I talked and decided I should go out and see what the situation was, and if she were capable of living on her own. I got on a plane and flew to FL. She was in the hospital when I got there. She seemed mostly to be her sassy self but a little frail. She had aspiration pneumonia. She had had breast cancer and a sinus cancer lon ago and the radiation therapy then was not so localized as it is today. She had had problems swallowing for a good 20 years but now those problems were greatly exacerbated and she was deveoping this aspiration pneumonia regularly. I am going to make a long story short. I was really grateful for the time I had with Inez. i loved Bruce's sister and her husband and the rest of his family that i met. Inez was in and out of the hospital while I was there, more in and the nurses would order food for me hoping I would stay which i did because she was so much easier to deal with when I was there. I got to see a very wide range of her personality. i am somewhat ashamed and somewhat amused to say we fought some. But I really loved her. The apiration pneumonia was not going to stop unless she basically stopped eating. For awhile she had a catherther in her leg to provide nutrition. We tried a surgery to correct a hiatal hernia we thought might help her to swallow, but it didn;t. She hated being a patient. She wanted food and drink and wanted the tubes out. Bruce made me explain over and over to her what her options were. She wanted to live. But she was unable to tolerate the aggressive medical procedures that might lengthen her life. Finally, we decided to take her home with hospice care. I committed to being with her as long as she was alive. We brought her home on a Friday. She was so happy to be home. She kept saying what a beautiful place it was and how clean. I had round the clock help, but I gave her most of her medication. I loved the hospice people. I got to meet a long time online friend who just happened to be a hospice nurse. Inez had a good Friday and a wonderful Saturday. She was filled with love and was acting like she was at some wonderful party. She got to talk to a lot of people like her children. By Sunday she was non responsive and never responded again. I was with her when she died. A friend of mine flew all the way out from Utah and we drove back in a long wonderful roadtrip. When I got home I enrolled in school with a goal of becoming a nurse. I've completed my first semester of college with a 3.76 GPA having taken phlebotomy, a CNA class (I am now state certified) English 1010, Elementary Algebra and a LIB class. School was much harder than I remember, but it was fun. I got used to being up at 3 am to do homework. My personal life is a roller coaster. Bruce has been very supportive. My 28 year old nephew is apparently dying of alcoholism. I found this out on mother's day when I called my mother which I do too rarely but there are reasons for that. I don't know if my nephew is alive or dead. I need to call. Bruce and I have tackled cleaning the house. I hope to put a dog groomery in the garage, because I miss grooming. I had hoped to volunteer to groom dogs over the summer and volunteer for hospice but so far i am too busy with the house cleaning. What's new with you?