My Mom passed away on September 22 (1:45 am). This post has mostly family pictures.
Mom had been becoming more frail, and suffering from mild dementia that was progressively getting worse. About a week after our last Portland trip she fell and broke her hip (that happened on September 11). Surgery was required to do a partial hip replacement, which was done on September 13. Mom wasn’t strong enough to recover from the surgery. I decided to go back up to Portland on Tuesday September 20. Mom passed away on Thursday. I was happy I was there. I stayed in Portland for the funeral, which was on Friday, September 30. Mary Ann came up on Wednesday, and Josh and Aaron on Thursday. We left on Sunday morning October 2 (except Josh who stayed until Monday). I had an open-ended ticket, and wound up with a long stay. Thanks to Bob and Terry for putting us up.
It was a sad time to say goodbye to our Mom, grandmother, great grandmother, aunt, sister, friend. It was also a joyful time to celebrate her life and gather with her family of 7 kids, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, and also a lot of my cousins and relatives and friends I haven’t seen in a long time.
Most of my time was spent with Mom for the first two days, and family the rest of the time. I did go birding with brother-in-law Bob twice, one day to the Tualitan River National Wildlife Refuge, and another day first to the Smith and Bybee Wetlands Area (the largest municipal wetlands area in the country), and then to Steigerwald National Wildlife Refuge. I golfed twice, once with brother Bob at Heron Lakes, and the second time at Glendoveer with a large group: brother Bob, nephew Bob, sons Josh and Aaron, nephew-in-laws Nate and Tyson.
Most of the pictures in this post are from a family get together the day after the funeral at the club house of Mike and Jill’s condo. There are a few birds ‘thrown in’.
Here are the pictures:
