Team Crothers: In Memory of My Mom/Grandma Kathi

This is probably the toughest post I have had to post. To be honest I am still kind of in shock of it all. Here is quick summery...

My Mom went to the ER on Feb. 9th and was told the next morning she had late stage 4 lung cancer that had spread everywhere. The doctor let me know we should come out, that he estimated weeks to a month for her. So, Tim and the kids and I flew out on Feb. 14th. The day after we arrived we moved her into a nursing home and hospice care. The kids had some good visits with her and she was really at peace and ready to go. Her Pastor had even said she has never met someone so at peace with dying. She declined quickly and on Feb. 29th she passed. Tim and the kids left the next morning and I stayed back to take care of things. Thankfully my Auntie Pam stayed with me the whole time after Tim and the kids left so I wasn't alone. We did an incredible amount of work in a whirlwind of a time. Both while Tim was there to help and after. We had to hire an attorney (since my Mom didn't have a will), realtor and repair and cleaning people and held a memorial service. Unfortunately the house was in pretty bad shape and took a lot of work to clean up and sort through. We did get it listed for sale right as I came home and got an offer in 2 days so we are now in the works of selling it. Then probate will last a minimum of 4-5 months. There is a big IRS bill to deal with and Medicaid but that's why we got an attorney so everything will be handled properly. Not sure how it will all play out but, should be able to recoup all we are having to pay since she had no life insurance or money in the bank so it all fell in my lap. The Lord provides and I know he will continue too. I was gone about 6 weeks and was so busy there that I didn't have time to process her death and knew it would hit me once I got back home. It's just hard to wrap my mind around the fact that I can't pick up the phone and call her. I will miss her voice. I cry at everything and emotions are running high but I know over time that will pass. The kids are handling it well and it makes a huge difference to be a Christian when dealing with death. I think it was almost harder for them to see me lose my Mom because they think of it in terms of if they were to lose me. They were more worried about how I was doing then themselves. Tim is just an amazing husband and his support through this has been rock solid and he did a great job of having to be single parent Mr. Mom for 3 and a half weeks with out me here.

I just want to say thank you to all who have helped us through this process from prayers, places to stay (I stayed in 12 different places over the 6 weeks, Tim and the kids 8), a car to drive, finances, helping with the sorting and the house, guidance and love and support. We are truly blessed by all our family and friends. I now can call two of my Mom's friends my friends and owe a big thank you to Cynthia and Ingrid, we couldn't have gotten everything we got done without them. Not to mention Ingrid is storing a car and some furniture for me that I will have transported to us once we move this summer.

There are lots more details as you can imagine but I am not going to go into them. What I am going to do is post a bunch of fun pictures and memories of my Mom. I am so thankful that I got to stay a few days with my Grandma (my Dad's mom) before I hopped on the plane home. She has a photo album for every year. So I was able to snap some pictures of my Mom and I when I was little. Don't laugh at my chubby cheeks! I also had some pictures on a thumb drive of her and the kids.

Mom, I love you and miss you and am happy you are in heaven with Jesus and not suffering from the cancer anymore. And, as you and I always told each other during tough times I am going to "Pull up my Big Girl Panties and Deal with it!" On a side note she did tell me right after she found out she had the cancer and knew I was upset that it's okay to sometimes let them drop and cry. Which I have cried a lot so I am gonna pullem" back up for a bit!

Ok so this one. Yeah she scared the daylights out of me. This was her Halloween costume she wore to work but didn't show me ahead of time. Well, she came home from work and walked right in the door like this and I was terrified I thought it was some old creepy dude just walking right into our house. She thought it was hilarious. I remember not thinking it was so funny at first haha!