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Wednesday, January 31, 2018

End of an Era: A Time to Mourn

It's been a little over 12 weeks since my father, Frederick Henry Pape, died, and now I will finally have some time to really process his death.  His funeral on November 14 was rapidly followed by Thanksgiving, a care plan meeting at my mother's memory care facility, her subsequent eight-night hospitalization with pneumonia starting on November 30, her discharge to a skilled nursing center for rehab (where she still is), and during all of this, the need to deal with all of my parents' possessions in the duplex they were renting in Austin.

The lease for said duplex expires today. I have spent every weekend this month in Austin working to clear out items (that were not claimed by family members over the Christmas holidays) through direct sales, consignments, storage, donations, and recycling/trashing.  I'd leave my home at sunrise Saturday morning, drive three hours, work until dark (lighting in the duplex was poor as lamps disappeared), visit my mother at the skilled nursing center until her bedtime, then sleep at the duplex (the last two weekends on a cot) and work Sunday until I needed to leave to get home before dark.

This past weekend I stayed an extra day, as on Monday, I cleaned the inside of the oven and refrigerator along with the entire garage (thankfully cleared out of all items by my brother Brian, who has been a huge help in this whole project), while my parents' long-time housekeeper thoroughly cleaned the rest of the duplex interior. 

It now truly feels like the end of an era, and time to mourn.  My sister Mary currently has Dad's cremains, and set up this lovely little memorial to him in her home.  My memorials will be in this blog, as I share more memories and photos as I go through the process of grieving.




© Amanda Pape - 2018 - click here to e-mail me.

2 comments:

  1. Amanda, I hope you get some time to mourn and recover from all this stress. Keeping your Mom in my prayers. DON'T FORGET TO TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF TOO!!!

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