Very Happy We Helped Her Live

My Great Aunt passed away at the age of 96 today.  I was shocked.  I mean you expect that anything can happen when you a relative is 96, but I just saw her on our trip to North Carolina and she looked great.  She moved better than most 66 year olds and we were able to get a video of her flipping a card and catching it quickly.  Amazing reflexes for someone her age.

I spoke on the phone with her on Monday (one reason was to remind her to eat) and on Thursday I listened to her tell my mom how wonderful I am and how she fell in love with me on our visit. She seemed full of life over the phone then.  She actually passed away later that night. 

She was an avid golfer, and she hit a hole in one in her sixties.  She played up into her 90s. 

I'm not really all that sad, because when my mom and I visited, and when my uncles did as well earlier in the month, we helped her live life.  Since her husband died she has just been couped up in her apartment.  That's not much of a life to live.  When we visited we took her out to eat and drove around to see her old house.  Her memory wasn't that good because of a fall, but she got us close.  She appreciated seeing it.  Another day while we were in North Carolina we took her out for Ice Cream because she really liked Ice Cream and her facility had a problem with it's freezer.  We drove her through one of the worst rain storms I have ever been through in order to get ice cream.  She really enjoyed herself and couldn't believe what we were driving through just to get her some ice cream.

We couldn't go golfing because of the weather being too hot.  That's the one thing we wish we could have done, whether it be the driving range or mini golf.  

I showed her my IPhone and all that it can do.  It's amazing how much things have changed from the Woodrow Wilson administration. She was amazed by it.  I showed her some of the work that I did because she was interested in it.  She saw a sample of a video I made and she couldn't believe what girls were doing in athletics now.  We showed her video of us skydiving and we got her to say that "Well if everyone else was going than I might go."

It's always sad when someone passes away, but it feels much better when you know that you helped them enjoy the final moments of their life. 

Create a list of things you want to do in life and make them happen and help others make theirs happen.