What a week (or 4). After a long battle with lung cancer and goodness knows what else, my dear Mother in law passed away last Saturday night, and finally she is resting easily in Heaven. I had spent a lot of time with her over the last month especially, sitting with her at home and in the hospital, and I feel so blessed to have been able to be there and to be a part of her last times on Earth. Besides truly being “hot stuff on a stick” in her younger years (her words…lol), she was a spectacular older woman with a brilliant mind, a fierce wit and wonderful, imaginative, personality. At just a few days short of 69 years old, she died much, much too young.

One of the things I will remember most is how I always showed my dumb blonde around her - she would try to be subtle about asking me to get her some cigarettes - she smoked Sports - and she would always slip some silly comment in about sports (I just hate sports), and I would never get it. Over and over - time after time - I never would I get it, and she would always have to thump me on the head each time and say “duh - get me some cigarettes!!” She was very special to me. We have lived here for 4 years, and above everyone else, Jeanette made me feel like a real, long term, part of the Jones family. She confided in me, she loved me, and I loved her so much.

I sat with her for about 4 hours on Friday morning, and I am so honored to have had that time with her. She was laughing and joking and even ribbing me about my dumb blondeness, all the while gasping for breath worse than I had ever seen. Less than a day later she fell asleep (after 2 sleepless nights) and never woke up again. She frequently mentioned how she believed I saved Marshall’s life, and I know she knows how deeply I love her son and he loves me. My heart breaks for the loss of her in my life, as she is one of the few female friends I have here - and makes me so very thankful that my mother has now moved here.

Marshall spoke at her funeral today, I don’t know how he managed it. He and his two brothers stood up in front of everyone and Marshall was the spokesman - he spoke of the things she loved in life (games, family, crossword puzzles and Art Bell), the important roles she had to so many people, and how beautiful she was. And she really was. I have never been so proud of my husband - he brought much needed laughter and tears of loss in the memories he shared of his mother. The service would have been incomplete without him, and with his eulogy (eugoogley?), the service was absolutely perfect.

Her family is so special - she is one of 8 sisters and 2 brothers, and is the 3rd of the group to pass on. Much of the rest of the DeLeon’s were there, and they are just all so very special to me - they have, just like their sister, made me feel like a real and loved member of the family. They all live out of town, and part of the heartbreak of Jeanette’s death is the fear of losing touch with them - Marshall and I both are horrid at keeping in touch, we will absolutely have to make the effort, as that would be a loss worse than death.

Rest in peace, Jeanette - we surely do love you and will miss you desperately until the time comes when we are all together again.

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If you are including us in your prayers tonight, please also include my friend AT, whose wife is battling an infection, very similar to the one Marshall went through. She is in Oak Ridge, and her circumstance is possibly even more dire than Marshall’s was, if thats possible. Reading AT’s daily diary about what they are going through has become somewhat therapeutic to me, as her situation has been so similar to Marshall’s and her husband’s bare naked feelings so mimic the ones I had at the same time but never wrote down. BJ is having a trach tube put in very soon, as she has done the maximum time on the ventilator. Thankfully Marshall’s lungs worked just before he had to have a trach put in. As I have been praying for my own family, I have been keeping BJ and AT and their family right there in my heart and mind too, and I hope you will as well - they are going to have a long, tough road ahead.