Mildred Lee Black

Steve and I have been busy this year with his mom.  A really neat lady. We’ve been moving her into an assisted living facility, moving her to the hospital, moving her to the nursing home for the one night before we had to move her back to the hospital to say goodbye.  Her family waiting with her day and night as Mildred waited to go home.  A place she was ready to go to, Sweet Beulah Land.  If you haven’t heard the song Sweet Beulah Land by Squire Parsons, go to youtube and find it!!

She had had a major heart attack in 2011 along with some other major heart aches along the way, and the joy was gone.  She still smiled her pretty, contagious smile at times, enjoyed her family, but more and more she was in pain and full of discontent.

Mildred 16 yrs

We had hoped the move to the assisted living facility would help her outlook on life as well as give her the daily help she was needing.  Her sis got her into a good doctor, and we had high hopes of a better quality of life.

One day we got a call that she needed to go the hospital, so Steve and I went over and got her and took her to the hospital.  Everyone loved her.  She charmed the socks right off of all of them with her wit and candor and interest in who they really were.  After all she was a nurse herself.  But really… I think it was that lovely smile that won all their hearts.

Mildred 1951

The lung x-ray was hanging in the hub unit of the emergency ward.  We saw the doctor on the phone, viewing the x-ray.  There was a large mass at the bottom.  And then they came in to talk to Mildred, to ask her what kind of life-saving measures she wanted taken if it turned out to be cancer.  They, of course, already knew.  The sweet doctor said, “Mildred, you are a miracle.  I’ve looked at your hospital records, and you had a major heart attack.  You should not be here today.  The fact that you are is a miracle.”

Steve’s little Momma had another heart attack not more than a week later, asking for no life support to be given.  She was a feisty little booger.  Tough.  Fun.  And a number of other descriptions I can’t begin to name!