March 2022
March Update For All Gloria’s (Glorious) Fans!
Well, spring is in the air and it seems like time is just flying by ridiculously fast! We blasted through February and now March, and we are on the cusp of Gloria’s would-be 76th birthday (April 2). Be on the look-out for something in the mail to help you celebrate Glo and to help her dream of being on the beach come true! It’s been inspiring the number of people who are part of this Glo-bal Celebration. Brad, Krista, and I are super excited!
Just to fill you in on what’s been happening the past few months, I thought I’d make a short list…
a) Visits with friends, family, and neighbors around Echo Lake to help support Jack during his time of transition.
b) Opportunities for Dad/Jack to visit Bradley and Krista in Oregon, and me in Florida to see where he might like to move since roaming around in his current house is just not going to be a good solution.
c) Setting up paperwork with attorneys and financial wizards so that taxes can be handled and our family can go into the second half of the year with as much ease and grace as possible.
d) Sorting and sifting through 35 years of saved-up-stuff–and there is still MUCH more to go!
We have absolutely appreciated all of your kind thoughts and willingness to help Jack (and the kitty Rye) while we determine the right next steps. As of this moment, we are not selling the house on Echo Lake, but instead are looking at renting it out when Jack is ready to move to his new adventure. With any luck, all of that transition will take place in July or August so we can begin the process of making a new routine for Jack and so I can also get into more of a routine in my life in Florida.
We are doing fine, and we do miss mom each and every day. She would have loved to be on this trip with dad right now as he’s goofing off in Florida and hanging out with Dezi. 😉
Sending each and every one of you lots of love! And please give a high-five to the sky for Glo on April 2. She would like that!
Lindsay, Jack, and Dezi
January 2022
January 28, 2022 – Glorious has passed.
Well, Gloria finally decided it was “better to be out than in”, and she passed over to Heaven this morning at 10:10am. Brad, Krista, Jack, Dezi, Rye and I were all present for her soon after her passing. She is at peace. She had a lovely lavender bath compliments of Hospice and the Woodinville Lavender Farm around 11am, and she will be taken to the funeral home later today where her cremation will take place.
Please see our January 27 post for details on what is to come. Again, we are grateful to all of you for your love, well-wishes, and support. I will be updating more here as things happen for Jack next, as we know that many of you will have questions about him too! If you have a moment this evening to raise a glass with your favorite beverage in honor of Glorious (that’s what we called her), we welcome that too.
She will always be remembered and cherished by this tribe — eternally!
With love,
Lindsay
January 27, 2022
Good Day Family, Friends, and Fellows of Gloria!
We wanted to take the time to update you all here, and give you some specifics for the future that we do know now. Keep in mind, there is still a lot we don’t know, but will give you an update here as things happen. First and foremost, Glo is on her final stage of life in this 75 year tour on Earth. We expect her passing any day now, but we do not know when. She is comfortable. She is at home with Hospice nurses visiting daily. She is at home with Jack & her kids, Dezi and Rye, with occasional visits and lots of love from her grandchildren, her friends, and neighbors. There is no shortage of love, blessings, prayers, and even food being shared right now, so Gloria will go out when she is dang good and ready! That’s how she would want it.
Gloria is not eating or drinking anymore, and she no longer really opens her eyes much. It’s a tough process to watch, but in the end, we are so grateful it has gone quickly and seemingly relatively pain-free. We had to make the call that there will be no more visitors other than her immediate family for the duration. It’s just too much to manage and she needs the quiet to make her passing. We apologize if this is difficult for some of you, and we will completely make time to talk to anyone who just wants to ‘connect’ after Gloria is at final rest.
In true Gloria spirit, we also wanted to share with you “the plan” as we know it going forward. Jack is going to stay in the Echo Lake house for as long as we can arrange for him to have daily check-in’s and support here. Brad has taken a leave of absence from work to be available for the first month or so (February) and Linds will be back and forth to Florida helping Jack in March/early April. As her kids, we will be creating a kind of ‘schedule’ that can help Jack as much as possible in this next transition, as we’d like to help him find a routine as quickly as we can. He’s a trooper and he is totally at peace with all of this adjustment so now we just want to help make him comfortable too.
Secondly, we will not be having a formal in-person funeral for Mom. It’s not what she wanted. She was so inspired by this website, your Zoom calls, and the outpouring of your love, photos and stories, that we all felt like we had the wake already–and she got to participate! She actually really appreciated that so much and there is no way we can thank you all for what you did. But to celebrate her life after her passing, here is the plan. If you’d like to participate in our Glo-bal Beach Celebration, click here. The idea is that we will send to any and all of you a small portion of Gloria’s ashes that you can scatter on your favorite beach anywhere in the world. Her dream was to go to all 7 continents in this lifetime. So you can literally take her with you anywhere. Lindsay has a friend going to Antarctica this year and intends on having that continent covered! And all other continents and beaches would be her dream to be on! We’d love to hear your stories right back here on this website of where you took Glo with you on your travels. Traveling all over the world was her greatest accomplishment (other than maybe her grandchildren graduating college). 😉
The last thing we’d like to respectfully request is that you not post on Facebook or other social media sites any information about mom’s passing, or how you’ll miss her, or whatever. As a family, we want to connect with and notify people on our time, rather than field hundreds of calls, texts, emails, and Facebook trolls looking for this kind of information to ‘sell us’ something. If you would like to share “Glo info” with anyone else that you know might want to hear about her passing, feel free to send an email or text to them with this website address. We are fielding questions, comments, calls, texts, etc. as fast as possible. Linds has taken on the role of family communication central, and you can always text her at 206-409-4866 or email her at lindsay@teambe.com. If you don’t hear anything back right away, its likely because there is nothing new to report.
Both of us feel like we are so cared for, and want to keep in touch with all of you as we embark in a new chapter of our own lives without Mom.We thank you all for your love, well-wishes, support for our parents and all of us too. It’s been an incredible journey helping Mom transition, and one that will forever change our lives. We are grateful and humble. If we can do anything at all to assist you or your loved ones through this kind of process, by all means let us know. We’d be delighted to be of service.
With love and a big high-five from Gloria to all of you,
Lindsay and Bradley
January 22, 2022
Bondi and Buddy went to their new home today with Jeannie and Dale Schwartz! Gloria watched on FaceTime as they explored the big field and met Dash, the Schwartz’s full-size horse. Bondi and Dash instantly became friends and had a great time running around the field. Buddy figured out he could get a lot of pretzels if he was slow to approach the fence. Gloria loved to see how happy they were!
Jeannie provided an update that Buddy and Dash have been in the same field together for about an hour now and are doing great together, despite some initial trepidation. The three of them are going to be an excellent little crew going forward!
January 19, 2022
It’s HUMP DAY! And Gloria is making it over the hump in style today. She had delicious Girardi’s Italian food (thanks to our neighbors Farhad and Lida) last night with Jeren and his best buddy Noah. Those two kept Gloria entertained for an hour while she dozed in and out of the conversation. She is telling stories and having peaceful dreams of all kinds of things as she looks through the photos many of you have sent and added to this website. We are all so grateful for all of your generosity and storytelling skills.
She continues to wiggle her feet and wave her arms around in Jack’s chair, but she’s not wanting to get out of the chair very often now. Its not clear what time she’s got left, but each day is a new day with new adventures taking place. Perhaps there will be a shower in her future this morning? 😉
January 18, 2022
Well it’s Tuesday at the Lake, and Gloria has been a super-trooper these past few days/hours. She’s had visits from family and friends who gave her so many stories and adventures today. Her great-neice Maiya, gave her the long-awaited Goat Tatoo that she always wanted while Angela and Gail painted her nails & gave her a make-over with all of her hats! All of this took place while the poodle Dezi was up north having tooth extraction surgery (performed by our dear friends Ian and Pauli Marshall in Anacortes. You’ll be glad to know that Dezi still has 4 teeth and he is doing quite well in his recovery.) Knowing this also gave Gloria a lot of relief and comfort that everything is going to be OK. Her dear friend Helen also showed up for a surprise visit that just made her day, and her neighbors Farhad and Lida came over to just say hello and share their love as well. Gloria was one happy camper by 5pm!
So with all of her pets handled, this is the week when Jack gets handled too! I am taking him to see doctors and ensuring he gets rest and relief as well. This is an exhausting process for everyone, but we are all taking turns, helping each other out wherever we can, and mostly just enjoying our time with mom.
We are all in good spirits! And to make it even better, this week brings Brad and Krista, Kylin and Andrew to the house, along with a few other friends who just ‘have to stop by and tell her how much she means to them.’ She also has “sibling zoom call” on Friday with her brothers and sister, and other zoom calls scheduled with family members around the country. If you’d like to have some Zoom time with Glo, send me an email at lindsay@earth.university and I’ll set something up. She’s enjoying this very much.
Be well, take care of each other, and most of all enjoy life. That’s the message my mom always taught me, and I’m just grateful to be able to share in the wisdom of all that these final weeks of her time on Earth. With love, always….
Let the FUN Continue!
Gloria, Helen, Loren, Gail, Angela, and Lindsay all having a chuckle at doing a photo together.
