An Unexpected Turn of Events

I have this very sick uncle living with my grandmother. His body is riddled with cancer and it just doesn't look good.

Husband and I made the plan to go visit him this past Saturday and, moreover, spend time with our grandmothers. Hey, as long as they're still alive and "with it", we try to get down to see them at least once a month.

Anyhow, I more or less was steeling myself for my visit with my uncle. Even at Husband's grandmother's house, I was picturing how he may look and how he may feel.

Now, I love Husband's grandmother. She's 86 and totally spry, always with a great story and stuff to do. But it's that 86 thing that got Middle Child all wrapped up on the long drive to her home.

"She's close to 100, right? Will she live that long? Or is she going to die soon?"

Que sera, sera, Middle Child, we said but if that kid didn't have some kind of premonition or something.

The kids were playing in the backyard (oh, yeah, and she lives by herself in the cutest house you ever saw where, as of last winter, she was still shovelling the snow). Husband and I were with her in the living room talking when, all of a sudden, her hands are on her face. She suddenly had a severe headache, extreme nausea, dizzyness and the shakes. Her breathing was loud and very shallow and it looked like she was getting a hot flash. We didn't take long to decide she needed to go to the hospital.

So I stayed back with the kids while Husband drove the short distance to the nearest emergency room. I called Husband's aunt, because I thought that if Gramma was incapacitated, she'd be one who would have a handle on her health. Gratefully, Husband's aunt told her daughter who is a nurse. She came down to the hospital with her mother and asked all the right questions.

So after blood tests and and EEG, nothing came up. They all came back to the house about four hours later. Gramma said she felt that it had maybe been "the time."

Then we went to my grandmother's. My uncle looked pretty good, actually.