Loosing my mom...

On top of the world going CRAZY, I got the worst news of my life...my mom has died.

On the morning of Friday, April 17th, 2020, my mom got up for the day but fell down.  She was very confused and in and out of consciousness when my dad found her.  My dad, my sister, and my sister's husband got my mom to the ER at the Deming Hospital.  Because of the virus, they could carry her into the hospital but then had to wait outside in the parking lot.  My sister called me to let me know what was going on.  They were trying to "stabilize" her to move her to the bigger hospital in Las Cruces.  Her blood sugar was running high and her heart was slipping into weird A-fib rhythms.  She coded 3 times.  My dad had to make decisions for her FROM the parking lot.  After the third code, he decided to let her alone because her last words to him were, "I'm ready to go home."

Sooo many emotions felt since then.  But I take comfort in knowing that my mom died ON HER TERMS.  Her biggest fear was to grow old in a nursing home while loosing her mind as her mother had done before her.  She wanted to pass quickly AND she wanted to pass IN Deming.  Check and Check.

No one has the perfect childhood and we can all find faults in our parents.  She definitely didn't always love being a mom but at the end of the day, she was MY mom.  I can honestly say that she was one of my biggest supporters in my music career.  She always felt that having a piano in the home was important.  She also paid for my piano lessons for 9 years.  Whenever I wanted to get my brothers mad, I would go and play the piano because it was in the same room as our family TV.  I would start to play, they would turn up the volume, then my mom would yell, "TURN DOWN THE TV!!!"  The piano ALWAYS won.  Music has been the biggest influence in my life.  It saved me from many dark paths I could have chosen and I have my mom to thank for that.

Some of my favorite family pics:

My mom on her Wedding Day:
July 29, 1971

My Parents

That's me with the Mickey Mouse

Me and Travis

There were ALWAYS animals in our house!

This pic was a family joke for years:  My mom would say,
"Look at the beached whale".

Family Christmas Card 1994

Me & Travis again:)

Her Graduation from UNM
Masters in Nursing

My mom and her in-house donkey--Darla

Artwork by Seth Knoop

Her Family Service:  At Anne's home

Her box is just below her parents in
the Deming Cemetery. 

We spent the entire weekend in Deming the weekend of my mother's Family service.  We helped my dad clean out a few of my mom's rooms.  Max had the time of his life with all his cousins--big and little.  Here is what he accomplished this weekend: