Monday, April 28, 2008

Sad Week

It started with a phone call around 5:30am Wednesday morning. I heard my phone ring, but thought it was the alarm. For whatever reason, it was on Nick's side of the bed so I let him deal with it. He answered it and all I remember hearing was "Uh-oh, you have sad news?" At this point, I popped out of bed, looking at him, and asking him "Who is it? Are you talking to Mom? Did something happen to Papa?" I started to panic because he wasn't saying anything to me. I knew whatever he was listening to on the other end, was not good. I started to reach for the phone and told him to give it to me because it was mine. He finally whispered that it was his mom. That didn't make me feel any better. He was still listening and whispered "Grandpa Popp." He got off the phone and said that they had to take Grandpa to Memorial Hermann earlier in the morning because he suffered a massive stroke and things didn't look good. Unfortunately, the stroke happened near his spinal cord which caused major brain damage. He was currently on a respirator and they had decided to discontinue life-support when Aunt Rose made it from Forney to Houston. The news was absolutely shocking. Grandpa Popp had just been at our wedding and he was fine. The Monday after my birthday, April 14th, he and Grandma came for supper and he was fine.

Nick and I were torn on whether we should go to the hospital or not. It was a complete toss-up. Should we go and see him in the condition he was in and remember that as the last time or should we stay and remember my birthday celebration as the last time to see him alive? We finally agreed that we needed to go so that we wouldn't regret it later. Since all the wedding stuff, I was out of days to take off. I went in for a half-day, but ended up leaving at 9:45 when Nick called and said Rose was almost there. I rushed to pick Nick up from Grams' house and off to Houston we went. As we flew to Houston we learned that Uncle Louie wasn't there yet so we still had time. At this point, I decided that I could slow down and turn off my flashers. Louie, Nick, and I all made it to the hospital at about 11. All 3 of us went to see Grandpa together for a few moments. At about noon we all gathered around Grandpa, the respirator was turned off and they did all the other things they do. It was emotionally draining and unbelievable. I could not and still cannot believe what was happening. The entire Popp family has the strongest faith I have ever witnessed. As we all wept around Grandpa, you could tell that everyone was saddened by this tragedy, but happy for he went to a better place. They were so strong through it all. Aunt Ruthie asked if anyone would join her in singing "Peace is Flowing like a River." I lost it at this point. Words cannot explain this moment. I know Grandpa was so proud of her for the courage it took to get through that song. Grandpa died a little before 12:30pm.

We left the hospital around 2:30pm to go to Nada. We got to Grandpa and Grandma's house around 4 and finally had lunch. Brian and Abby brought bbq for the entire crew. As we sat around and reminisced, Grandma told us about the journal Grandpa wrote in. He started writing a journal in 2000. It was so neat to look at. His journal entries were only a couple of phrases long. Most of them went something like this...January 28th, 2002 High of 76 and Low of 52. Cloudy. Trimmed bushes in the yard and played "Canasta" with Joe and Pauline. Nick and I flipped to March 29th as soon as we got ahold of the journal. *Actually, Grandpa was a "little" bit of a perfectionist. He scribbled down his entry on a little tablet or any scratch paper and then rewrote it in his journal. Our entry was still in the tablet. It said..."Marilyn and Leonard picked us up to go to Shiner for the Chumchal/Popp wedding. Jenny and Nick are getting married at 2pm." This might not be word for word, but it's pretty close. We read it over and over and over. Grandma told us that he had so much fun at our wedding, especially with the Hobos playing the polkas. She also said he asked her how to spell Chumchal because he didn't want to get it wrong.

Friday evening we had the Rosary at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Nada and Saturday morning was the funeral. Both were very nice services. The church was filled with friends and family. We all headed home after the luncheon at about 3:30pm.

Saturday evening Nick and I went back to Nada around 7:30. Grandma seemed to be doing very well. She was sharing all sorts of stories with us. At one point, Grandma, Rose, Marilyn, and Ruthie were laughing hysterically about Marilyn kicking a window out at the old school house. It was so good to see Grandma and her girls laughing the way they were. There was no denying they were all sisters (and mother) as they all laughed simultaneously with the same grin. Nick noticed it as well. We ate supper, sat around, and then got stuff together for thank-you notes. We ended up leaving at 12:30am. We were very glad that we made the trip back to Nada to be with the rest of the family.

4 comments:

Abby said...

I will always remember grandpa at your wedding, he was so happy there!

Anonymous said...

Reading that just brought a flood of tears. I never would have made it through the first word of the song. It reminded me of How Great Thou Art that they played at Papo's funeral. And all the memories of that day and him came back. I know he's in the best place and so is Grandpa Popp. I wonder if they'll be friends. How cool! Mr Popp can tell Papo all about the stories from the wedding!!!

Jamo

Jenny Popp said...

I didn't make it through the first word! Ever since the first time I met Grandpa Popp, he reminded me of Papo. To me, they even looked similar to each other. I'm sure that Papo greeted him at the pearly gates. :)

Tracy said...

I can't thank you enough for taking all of the anniversary pictures. What a keepsake! You captured all of his "looks" perfectly. (the smirk, the slight grin, etc.)