Glenn, Emma and I were camping at Fort Stevens with my extended family when we received the call on Wednesday. Our cell phones were pretty spotty at the camp ground, so we only got a notification of a message. Glenn quickly called Teddy at Farmington Square and was told that if we wanted to say our goodbyes to Sharen, we needed to get in there. She had taken a bad turn, and in their experience, Sharen did not have long. I quickly called Jeff and told him this message. I then called Becky with the same information. I said that we would have to pack up first, and were heading back home.
After visiting my family to let them know we were leaving, we got the RV packed back up, and were heading home. I was following Glenn on Hwy 26, and as soon as I pulled through the tunnel, my text message beeped. Jeff had sent out that she was gone. We missed her. And I didn't know if Glenn knew. Glenn didn't get the message until we got to the Brookwood Exit and was turning off to go home. Poor Emma noticed my voice was not right, and that I was crying. When I told her about Grandma Sharen dying, her comment was "But I liked Grandma Sharen!" She was very sad and very confused. This is the first death she has ever experienced, and she did not know what to think. Over the next few days, we worked to explain it to her.
Glenn and I hurried to drop off Emma and our RV at home (So thankful that my Brother Chris was there to watch Emma) and hurried to Farmington. We got to see her, and we worked with the wonderful staff at Farmington and the Hospice company to choose a funeral home. We sent Jeff home as he had been awake for 22 hours at that point in time, and waited for Sharen's body to be picked up. Glenn was handling it so well. As he said, he had been saying goodbye to her for the last month, ever since she went on Hospice care.
The next day, Glenn, Jeff and I met with Omega Funeral Home Director Jim Han. We had already decided what we wanted in saying goodbye. Jim was easy to work with. We set the funeral date for the next Wednesday, July 31st. And after we left, we had an idea of what we needed to accomplish over the next several days. We three headed to Elmer's for lunch and to make sure we were all on the same page. After a nice lunch, I had a list of names I needed to call and ask to participate in the funeral. We parted from Jeff, who still needed to sleep (did not get to do much the night before) and traveled to Lincoln Memorial Park to make the burial arrangements. Sharen purchased her plot right next to her husbands when she buried him. We needed to work with them for the grave site service and the final arrangements. They were a pleasure to work with as well.
So the next few days were spent making preparations. Glenn and I made several calls, asking people to be pall bearers, getting the Mt. Tabor Bishopric involved, getting permission from the Beaverton Ward Bishop, asking Gordon Smart to do the Eulogy and Don Anderson to do the musical number, ordering flowers for the casket, picking up items we needed at Desert Books, working with Kathie Dullum (the Mt. Tabor R.S. President) to arrange a lunch and getting help with the dressing committee, and letting other people know. We also had to write and order her Obituary. And then we had to start gathering information on Sharen for the Eulogy. All stuff that we had never done before. It was quite a learning experience. And we did it with pleasure. We did it for a woman we love, and it was a great service to make sure she had a lovely send off. I have now learned so much, and while I don't want to have to do this again, I at least am more ready then we were. I am thankful for my wonderful husband who decided a few years ago that we should do some research into what would be required when the time came. We never thought it would be so soon, but at least we had a good idea of what it involved.
Thank you to all the people who have been such a wonderful support at this time. We have felt such an outpouring of love for not only Sharen, but ourselves over the last several days. We are so blessed to have such a great support system. While this is a lousy reason, it is nice to reconnect with so many people who have played an important role in our lives.
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