Seattle Times Obituary

Hello dear friends and family,

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/seattletimes/obituary.aspx?n=janet-leigh-osborn&pid=186693735

Here is the link to Janet's obituary in the Seattle Times. It will be available to view online long term, but will only be in print tomorrow, September 19th. It is fairly brief because we have something longer in the works that will be available to read at www.emmickfunerals.com very soon.

Memorial details

We will be celebrating my mom's incredible life on October 8th at Pathfinder School (1901 SW Genesee St. Seattle, WA) from 11:00am-2:00pm. There will be some speakers, time to mingle and share memories, and refreshments. There will be an official obituary soon, I plan to share details on how to access that on this blog.

I hope to see you all at the memorial!

All the best,
Maggie

I am so sad to say that my mom passed away yesterday morning, Wednesday, August 23rd. My dad, Michael, and I were right by her side and she went peacefully. We are heartbroken.

My mom wished for us to be surrounded by friends and family shortly after she passed. We will be having an open house/pot luck this weekend, Saturday and Sunday from 11-4 each day. Please come to share stories and love. We will be having a memorial service at a later date.

Thank you once again to everyone who has kept up with her experiences through this blog. It was so important to her.

With love,
Maggie

August 20th

Hello everyone, Maggie here again. We wanted to update you on how my mom has been these past couple weeks or so. She has been on the decline. She needs support getting around the house and spends most of her days sleeping or just with her eyes shut. She’s not eating or talking much and gets confused at times. Michael, Eva, and I have been staying with my parents full time since last weekend. She is receiving support from our wonderful hospice team as well: nurse visits a couple of times a week, meetings with the social worker, and baths from her bath aid three times a week. Starting tomorrow, we will be receiving support from a long term care agency. As a family, we are not 100% sure how this is going to best work for us, but for this first week we are going to have someone stay with us through the night to help out when mom gets up to go to the bathroom. As school starts back up and we need to head back to work, we may switch to more of a day time schedule, we just don’t know yet. We know that this is hard to hear, and maybe not what some of you were expecting to read, but we agreed that it is important to be open and honest about what has been going on. My mom has loved keeping this blog, not only as a way to report on how she is doing, but as a way to vent, or rave, or otherwise express how she is feeling. I think that knowing so many are out there reading, supporting, and connecting with her has been so important. 

On another note, these two are celebrating 29 years of marriage today! 

I’ve heard that the cake was terrible, but the party was kick ass. I wish I could’ve been there. What I know for sure is that my parents were celebrating true, pure, unequivocal love that day. What an example they have been to us all! Happy 29 mom and dad!

August 4th

Happy Hot Summer!
We look forward to them so much and then quite readily are ready for them to be done!
I like to get warm to the bone, for sure, but I also really really need to cool off.

I am having a difficult time figuring our "where I am" on my life to death continuum and it is even more difficult to communicate that to others.  In addition it is a fine line between being honest with oneself, with others and with keeping my head in or out of the sand. No one has a real time line for me.  No one has a real time line for anyone unless they are moving quickly to their death. Then it is a little easier to predict the timing.

I am under the care of hospice and have been since before my family was here. I had oxygen when my family was here but had no other assistive devices. Now I have a shower chair, a hospital bed, a nurse, Teddy who I see once a week, an OT I've seen just once but will see weekly for a little while. I see a social worker. I have a massage therapist but only get to see her 4 times total.

After my family left I went to see nearly every one of my doctors and hospice folk, as well as a new physiologist who is unique, wonderful, and a new hero for me.

I've had a lot of med changes which put me through a big spin and lots of emotions and struggles. I THINK AND HOPE all that struggle is settling down now.

First, I am NOT on my death bed.  I get up every day and do most of my own self care though Mike helps me with a few things, mostly anointing myself with essential oils nearly all over my body, thank you my Gilroys for all my oils!

I am still eating and feeding myself though I am easting less and less, which can be so very sad, like when we had French Night last night and I did not physically have room for all the food.

I mostly plan and organize my day though I'm having trouble with some executive functioning skills.

My struggles include fatigue, extreme fatigue like dozing off now and then as I am typing right now. Some days when I wake up I literally want to go right back to bed. I can balance and walk though only a short distance. I use a walking stick or a wheel chair when we are out and going a great distance.

I have a hard time following my own train of thoughts, I have trouble with memory. I cannot possibly keep up with texting or emailing, I am not replying most of the time. When I try it feels like I am drunk texting...not that I would really know what that feels like!

I have pretty big case of adema and there is no where for the fluid to go, so I am back to a low sodium, low fluid diet. No good to be limited fluids on these hot days.

I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the love I am receiving from my family and close friends who are very respectful and understanding when I say I cannot see them and also when they are here making me laugh so hard and helping me do the simplest of things, like Maggie sitting here right now ready to fix this post up for me. I am so fortunate that it is the summer and I get to have my family around so much.

Thank you all for your love and understanding and support. You are helping to keep me alive. For real.

I love you
We love you
Janet

Photos from French Night

August 1st

Hello everyone, this is Maggie, blogging on my mom's behalf. She hasn't been able to make it to the computer and asked me to pass along this message:

"I'm running out of steam. There are relatives and close friends that I really want to see but don't have energy for. Recently I haven't been able to gather up energy. I'm very lethargic and having trouble balancing fluids. A little bit dizzy and uncoordinated. My liver, lungs, and heart are all struggling. I saw a number of doctors this week and they've all been very helpful, but I continue on this downhill slide."

She wanted me to say that she really hopes that she starts to recover, and if she does she would love to see you all. She loves you all very much.

All the best,
Maggie