The Energizer Memere

This is Memere at Dunkin' Donuts in Florida, a few days ago.

When I was in kindergarten, Memere was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and it was so bad that her doctors in West Virginia predicted that she had maybe six months to live. My mom, who worked for an oncologist, got on the train and brought her home to Boston where she received experimental chemotherapy at Mass General. She beat that cancer.

Memere once drove her car off an embankment, in reverse, at a high speed, and landed in her pool while my Pepere watched from the patio. She survived without a scratch. Pepere died a few months later.

Memere moved to Florida after Pepere died. She wasn't there very long when she had a major heart attack. The doctor diagnosed her with Congestive Heart Failure and said she probably only had a "few more years" left, at best. I was pregnant for Georgia at the time. Georgia is 13 now.

When we found out we were moving to Hawaii, we went to visit Memere in Florida before we left. Casey was a baby and while we were out of the room, Casey took his very first steps for Memere. She was delighted, and I was thrilled. We were moving far across the ocean for three years, and I didn't think she would ever see her great grandson again... so it made me happy that the time with her was so meaningful.

While we were living in Hawaii, Memere got into a bad car accident, totaling her car. The police officer on the scene wrote her a ticket for going through a red light. She yelled at him: "I didn't see no red light! Shame on you, young man. You are supposed to be nice to an old lady!" After that, we took her driver's license away.

A few years later, we returned from Hawaii, and we were stationed at MacDill AFB in Tampa, just an hour from Memere's house. On Halloween, I drove down to Palmetto to pick her up to spend the holiday weekend with us. Halloween is her favorite. While the kids were carving pumpkins on the deck, Memere went to rest in Hannah's room... she didn't look well. Twenty minutes later I went in to check on her and she was incoherent, drooling, wig sliding off , with eyes rolling back into her head, making horrible guttural sounds that scared the crap out of me. I thought she was dying, so I called 9-1-1. I rubbed her back and soothed her while we waited for the ambulance. When the EMT team arrived, it took two of them to hold her down. Her blood sugar was 19. She was in a state of severe hypoglycemia. They took her to the ER and she missed Halloween, but they sent her home later that night. We kept vigil on her every few hours. When I went in to check on her at 5am, she was foaming at the mouth and we could not wake her. We called 9-1-1 again. This time her blood sugar was 18. I thought we had lost her, but after a few days in the hospital, she snapped out of it.

Memere was a little cuckoo after that incident, but we don't know if it was due to the hypoglycemia episode or if she was just drinking a little too much "vudka." Either way, she continued to make us laugh and we visited her as often as we could. The Christmas before we moved away, I found Memere in a pretty bad state. She was unable to cook the turkey dinner, which concerned me...when it comes to cooking, nothing will stop Memere. I mean NOTHING! Sure enough, two days later she was in the hospital. She had a stroke. We didn't think she would make it, but it wasn't long before she was yelling at the doctors to get her out of that stinkin' place.

After a few weeks in rehab, Memere was doing pretty good. She was getting some of her speech back and her sense of humor. Unfortunately though, she will never be able to move away from the rehab facility. Before we moved away from Tampa, I took Memere to the beach. I helped her down to the water so she could stick her toes in the ocean, feel the sand on her feet, and breathe in the salty air. It may have been too much on her, because she ended up back in the hospital a few days later. Doctors said she was "failing." The day we moved from Florida I went to say goodbye and my heart broke. I can remember leaving her room, crying all the way down the hallway, through the front door, and sobbing inconsolably as I drove away. I felt certain this would be my last goodbye....for real this time.

That was three years ago. We are four months away from moving again, and we will be in Florida this summer. Memere has suffered from cancer, congestive heart failure, arthritis, diabetes, stroke, multiple car accidents, broken hips, and many other medical problems in her life... but she has outlived two husbands, most of her her friends, and all of her many siblings. Hang on Memere, you stubborn old lady!!! We'll see you soon!!!