Saturday, April 21, 2007

My Gma

This is Stacy here. Last Friday, my Gma (dad's mom) died. Frances Pearl (Rummel) Bailey She had a hard time, battling pneumonia and a collapsed lung, and it was time for her to be gone from this world. She would have been 90 in June. Last Thursday, Megan and I drove up to Ohio from Baltimore together. I don't know if she realized who we were or if she even knew we were there, but it was so good that we were able to go see her. Megan was a big huge help and support for me. First, she helped us make sense of all the machines and monitors in Gma's room, and then Thursday night helped me through a 2-hour panic attack by praying out loud for me and quoting Scripture. We tried to remember all the verses we could. I guess that it happened while I was trying to control my mind and feelings, and my body just decided to take over. It had been very intense that day at the hospital. In the hospital room that day was Dad, Aunt Joyce, Aunt Carolyn, Aunt Doris, 2nd cousin Brad, and Megan.

It was a learning trip. During the calling hours, I was able to look through all kinds of "stuff" that Gma had. She wrote down everything. And I mean everything. She had boxes of letters, journals, picture albums, annuals, and an autobiography she wrote upon graduating high school. She was Class Historian and Salutatorian, eventually giving an address to her Class entitled "The Worthy Use of Leisure Time." We found part of this speech (pages 4-5) written in her eloquent handwriting. She was a philosopher. Gma went to Nursing School in Delaware and eventually was an ER Nurse in the same hospital she had her 5 children in and eventually died in. She had old anatomy and physiology notes. She had scraps of paper saying things like "my great grandpa Rummel met his wife on the boat to America from Germany." Her mother's maiden name was LeMasters (she was French) She was creative, always experimenting with colors, design, drawing, and recipes. She had boxes of calendars on which she wrote day-day things, including a heartbreaking note about her husband on a calendar 10 years ago..."Today Dick died. I don't know what I'm going to do" and the pen line trailed down and off the page. Gma recounted many stories from her work in the ER...Bomb threats, people grabbing her from behind, patients demanding drugs, pregnant ladies giving birth on the steps of the hospital...when Megan read these stories, she said, "That's exactly what I have to deal with now...." She is an ER nurse, too. I think my Gma had a big role in Megan being a nurse, and in my dad going back to school to be a nurse after all these years. Gma and Gpa had 5 kids, 17 grandkids, 30-something great-grandkids, and 3 great-great-grandkids. She was a blessed woman, a kind and thoughtful person, and always influencing in ways she may have never realized. Goodbye for now, Grandma!