A Prayer Request Please

Last night I received a Facebook message from California from Sandra, my former sister-in-law from my first marriage, telling me that Grandma Edith - my former grandmother-in-law who always thought of me as her granddaughter even years and years after the marriage fell apart - was in the hospital following an accident and the doctors were only giving her two weeks.

As I was at work and not able to call her, I gave my son Michael Sandra's number and he got in touch with her to find out what had happened.  The news definitely wasn't good and I'm not overly optimistic that the two weeks the doctors have given Grandma Edith will really be that long.  According to Sandra, she fell asleep while smoking a cigarette and suffered 2nd-degree burns over 2/3rds of her body. Her throat is swollen so badly that she's on a ventilator so that she can breathe and she was transferred from the local hospital in Stockton to a higher-level-of-care facility in Santa Clara.  Honestly, it doesn't sound good at all.

Grandma Edith and Precious in May of 2008

Over the years Grandma Edith has been having increasing problems with her memory and had been confined to bed for quite some time following a fall but she was stubborn and independent and refused to go live with either her son Bill or with Sandra in spite of their repeated requests that she do so.  I knew she smoked in bed in spite of repeated warnings not to and I was always afraid that something bad like this would happen.  Were it not for her neighbors who kept a close eye on her I'm sure the entire house would have gone up in flames around her.

Mike and I have been trying to figure out how we can get out to Stockton but after looking at the cost of airline tickets, I just don't see a trip to the West Coast as a viable option.  Tickets can be bought for less than $300 round-trip but that's only if they are bought 14 days in advance and I'm thinking 14 days out will probably be way too late to get there in time.  Bereavement fares for seriously ill relatives are not exactly affordable either as 5% savings is not much when you're looking at fares over $500.

Sandra was heading to Santa Clara this morning and said she'd keep me posted but I'm afraid the news probably won't be good no matter how stubborn Grandma Edith may be; there are some things that 90-year old women just can't fight and I'm thinking that amount of burns is one of them.

Please keep Grandma Edith in your thoughts and prayers that she not suffer too badly for as much longer as she may have left on this earth.  She was always very, very good to me and this is certainly not the end of a long life that I would have wished for her, though I've not seen her in over two years she has remained close in my heart and memories.  Prayers for her son Bill, who is totally devastated, would also be appreciated.  Thank you.