Hold on tight to your loved ones..

Just eleven short weeks ago, my mother-in-law went to the dr with stroke like symptoms - she was having trouble with words and memory loss. They sent her for tests and she was given a diagnosis of a brain tumour.  A week later, after an operation, it was determined to be an aggressive brain tumour - we were told the average life expectancy for that type is 12 months.

4 weeks ago she started on a round of 6 weeks of chemo & ray treatment.  Two weeks ago, on the Monday, she ended up back in hospital unconscious.  The drs didn't think she'd make it through the night.  They pumped her full of steroids to reduce the swelling on the brain, and over the next four days, she gained full awareness and some speech.  Physically she was paralysed down one side, had to be fed on pureed food and had a catheter. The drs wanted to do another MRI to confirm their suspicion that the cancer had grown even with the chemo / ray.  She took each of her children aside and begged them to support her decision, then refused the MRI and any further treatment.  They stopped the steroids on Friday last week.

She passed away this morning about 1:15am, 8 days later.

I'm very grateful that we had the time with her that we did. 

I'm grateful that we made the best use of that time, and spent a lot of time with her.

I'm grateful that the last time we saw her out of hospital was to share a cake for Billy's b'day. 

I'm particularly grateful that I got a lovely photo of her & Billy together on that day.

I'm grateful that we had time to say goodbye and our last words to each other were 'I love you'.

Hold on tight to your loved ones. 

You will be missed so much, Val - you were a great Mum, Mother in law and Ma.