Archive for February, 2015

Feb 20

Thursday February 19, 2015

It has been  a long week!  Chris and I arrived back in Wisconsin last Saturday Feb 14.   It is a shock leaving that wonderful Florida weather and hitting the cold Wisconsin winter.   And the last few days have been below zero Fahrenheit.  But that has been the easy part of the week.

We lost my Mom this week.   Assisted Living found her unresponsive in the bathroom Monday morning.   She was taken to the hospital and they guessed she has some type of infection in her system.   They found a UTI infection but did not think that was bad enough to be causing the systems they saw, and thought the infection may have entered her blood stream.  Skip and Claire spent a lot of time with her, but she was not recognizing or responding to anyone, and was very agitated and her body was in constant motion.  The hospital needed to restrain her arms to keep the IV’s inserted as they gave her antibiotics and tried to sedate her.   24 hours later and there was no change in her.   The antibiotics did not seem to be working and she had not calmed down at all.  The doctor felt she was in discomfort and pain, and we made the decision to give her enough morphine to calm her.   Mom was always very happy that even with her knee degenerated she had no pain, and that was one thing she did not want to have- pain.   Chris and I went down to Milwaukee Tuesday and we were all with Mom when she passed away Tuesday evening.

She has no more pain.   Skip saw her last week and she was doing well, and I spent some time with her before I went down to Florida.   I thought she was doing well, and am glad that when her time came to leave us that it went quickly.   She was ready.   She would have been 94 this week, and thought that is too long to live.   Having to depend on others to help her was understandably tough on her.  She had some wonderful caregivers, and some that should do something else with their lives.  Her friends and family are gone and she had few of us to talk to.   This last year she grew more tired, but she enjoyed decorating her apartment and outside of her door.  She still had a good memory and was very ‘with it’.  We say that assisted living will struggle without her, as she often would help the other residents who would forget their way.

Now that lent is here the church’s are very busy and finding and open time for a funeral mass was not easy.   Mom and I had discussed mass so I wanted that.  We will have a mass at noon on Monday in Greenfield.   We encouraged Mary Jane and Craig not to spend the high cost and the difficulty of traveling to get here for the mass.  The time spent with her while she was with us and keeping those memories is most important .

She is peaceful now.  She is with Dad again, and can talk to Lottie every day.

Emily A. Bauer (Nee Sikora),

Emily was born To Eternal Life on Tuesday, February 17, 2015, at the age of 94 years. Preceded in death by her loving husband, Russell. Loving mother of Duane (Claire) and Randy (Chris) Bauer. Beloved grandma of Mary Jane (John) Espina, Denise Bauer and Craig (Andria) Bauer. Emily was born in Milwaukee to Joseph and Anna (Nee Dudon) Sikora on February 20, 1921.

Visitation will be held on Monday, February 23, at ST ALPHONSUS CATHOLIC CHURCH, 6060 W. Loomis Rd, Greendale, from 10:00 AM – 12:00 noon. Mass of Christian Burial Celebrated at 12:00 noon. Private burial at St. Adalbert Cemetery. – See more at: http://www.churchandchapel.com/obituary/Emily-Ann-Bauer/Greendale-WI/1482394#sthash.GgGPvWw6.dpuf

Christmas Eve lunch

Christmas Eve lunch

Mom

1979

1979

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Feb 09

Sunday February 8, 2015

Seems like I have been slacking in updates!   January has gone by and we are well into 2015.   January started off great, with Chris Mary Jane and I in Florida.   We brought the New Year in with Noel and Jo Ann in Estoro Florida.   They treated us wonderfully, and of course we left relaxed and our stomach’s full!   I stayed on in Florida until January 10th, and then headed back to real life!   December and January in south Florida were above average temperatures.  So even though Wisconsin temperatures were pretty comfortable compared to 2014, it still was a big let down to get back.   Marie came to Florida before I left, and has kept Chris company.   I returned January 31 and can stay until February 14.   This time Chris will come home with me.   We are lucky to be able to work as we travel, that is a big perk for us now in our last working years.  Being able to get away and enjoy some of life without having to burn our vacation time quickly.   No plans yet for what we do next in our travels.  Certainly we want to get back to Florida again, and we want to get to New Mexico this spring.   We will have to see how the cost of airfares rise around spring breaks and Easter and try to make some plans.

Since Christmas we have had  a lot of activity looking at our house.  We are told we have some very interested people, but no offers yet.  Oh well, it will happen when it happens.   We will just stay the course and continue to prepare for the next steps in our life.  Don’t stress the small stuff.  We are blessed to continue to enjoy life.   Being here in the warm weather is wonderful.   We spent part of the afternoon outside with our wonderful neighbors for cocktail hour.  At 90 and 93 years of age they are an inspiration!    We have met a lot of great friends, and certainly our Florida friends fit into that category.   Enjoyable to spend time with them and they are all very caring.

So we hope your winter is going well.  Stay safe.

cocktail hour

cocktail hour

 

Ron and Verna, Marie and Chris

Ron and Verna, Marie and Chris