Thursday, June 7, 2012

Illness, Death, and Moving. . .

I can't believe it has been nearly a month since I last posted. This post isn't a post tips for health or frugality,  but rather an update. I haven't had the time to blog lately, as we have been going through a LOT!

I have spoken in at least two other posts about the elderly lady that was living in our apartment with us. Well, she became very ill and required full time care. I had promised her years ago that I would never take her to a hospital, doctor, or nursing home. She was very into natural health and wanted nothing to do with medical. I wanted to honor her wishes, but she did become very ill. Taking care of her required a lot of time and our family was more then happy to do so!

A few weeks into her illness, my husband got another job in another state! It was so sudden and unexpected! I wasn't sure what to do with my dear friend. I new she was too ill to make that far of a move. We decided to move her in with another dear friend of ours. She had become so frail and week that moving her seemed a difficult task. It was SO sad and disheartening to see her leave. However, she was so ready to "go back home" as she put it. She wanted to be with her husband who had passed a few years ago.

Well, I still went over there each day and helped my friend take care of her. . .feeding her (what little, if any, she ate), changing her, and more. On the third day of her being there my friend called me over to her house. My dear friend and I held this sweet woman's hand for nearly an hour as she passed away (5-24-12). It was a bitter sweet experience for me. I've never been so intimate with death before.

After her death came the tears, the planning and preparation for her funeral (and all the drama that goes with that), and the grueling efforts to relocate a family of 8! To make a long story short, we went to the funeral on a Friday, then spent the day with my adult children we were leaving behind, then took off to our new place on Saturday! Our stuff did not reach us until the following Wednesday.

I thought before this move that I was a minimalist. However, when you move from a 4,600 sq. ft. home with 8 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, 3 living rooms, and 2 kitchens to a home a little over 2,000 sq. ft. (if that, I don't know what the sq. footage is really), you run out of room very quickly! However, I am VERY excited for the smaller space. I LOVE the simplicity of this small country home. I am definitely going to get rid of more "stuff", but when I am all settled my home will be SO easy to take care of!

I hope you can see now, why I haven't posted for a while! As soon as I get a little more settled, I'll get right back on the wagon of giving great tips to being frugal, healthy, and more simplified!

In memory of Ruby Chrisman 8-24-24 to 5-24-12 You will be loved and missed by many!



Have a Happy Simple Day!!

14 comments:

  1. I'm glad that your friend got to go be with her husband again. I'm sure it was a joyous reunion for them.

    Moving quickly like that is amazing to me. We could do it if we had to. My goal was to be able to pack everything but our furniture into our van and the people into our car, but we no longer have the van. We would have to ship most of our things and drive the car. We do have so little now though that I could pack the whole house in about 4 hours.

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  2. So sorry for your loss...she sounds like such a sweet lady. I would have liked to meet her.

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  3. Amy, that is amazing! I'm not that good yet, but mainly because we do food storage. The minimalism really made the unpacking super fast! We were unpacked AND decorated in just a few days!

    Stephanie, thank you. I wished I could have spent some more time w/you before I left. We will be staying at our house for most of the month of July. You should stop by!

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    1. We have some food storage, but most of what we eat is fresh food. Since it wouldn't be rotated and used we don't keep a lot on hand. When we moved into this rental house 15 months ago it took me a little less than 6 hours to unpack everything and find it a home. One of the perks of minimalism! The other is cleaning takes much less time. Today I actually packed away some things we haven't used since we moved in and if we don't touch them by September we'll find new homes for them.

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    2. Amy, we keep a lot of food on hand as that is the counsel we have been given by leaders of our church. It has blessed our lives before. I am SO impressed that you were able to unpack so quickly. We have been staying in an empty house for the past 2 1/2 weeks with VERY little! It has inspired me! Can't wait to get home and declutter some more! =)

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  4. What a blessing to be able to die at home with those you love. It seems that being in a cold hospital hooked up to all that mess would be horrid. I admire you for caring for her with all that is involved, especially in the middle of a move!

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    1. Thank you Kimberly. It was an honor to be able to fulfill her wishes. It was a spiritual experience for me.

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  5. A new fan of your blog here -- I've only read a few posts and I'm already falling in love with you. I'm sorry to hear of your loss, but touched to hear how closely you followed your friend's wishes. Blessings out, blessings in. :] Looking forward to more posts, when you get the time after your move!

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    1. Thank you so much for your sweet words! I have a few new posts already! I hope you enjoy. =)

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  6. What great fortune it was to stumble upon your blog. I was touched to read about the love and care given prior and throughout Ruby's passing. We should all be so lucky as to have someone like you in our lives especially in the latter years when we seem to have so little control.

    I look forward to reading more in the future. Take your time, settle in and write when you can.

    Be well...

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  7. I am sorry for your loss, I know how hard it is to lose someone close to you. I am however, very happy to have found your blog as I am also working towards less stuff and more life and to give more and take less. I started removing excess "things" about 14 months ago by donating and selling what we had accumulated over 4 years living in a large 5 bedroom colonial home. We sold that home to our local town co-op and bought a much smaller home. We are still settling into our 2 bedroom, 1 bath cottage home with one child remaining (we only have 2 children, both girls). I have found that we really never needed any of our other things and that living with less is much less stress free. I am really looking forward to hearing more about your life and family and I am terribly interested in hearing more about your menu planning! We are vegan and we make all our own cleaning products and natural healing items our self too, so I am anxious to hear more about what you make homemade!!
    I hope you are healing with your loss and growing with your blessings!
    Viv~

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    1. We sound like instant friends. =) I hope you've seen all my other posts on all our homemade items. Cleaning products and skin care. I LOVE hearing about your journey for less. Less is always better. We are still sorting through things, and with a large family, we probably always will be. =)

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