- I wanted to post yesterday that Bill's mother died on Sunday, December 21 at 2:00 a.m.
- We were going through some pictures and found this lovely picture of her that we had never seen before. Wasn't she beautiful? I took this photo on my camera using sepia settings (that I just found) since the picture was probably taken around 1935 and included the figures from our Christmas nativity because she was a devout Catholic so it seemed appropriate.
When she first move her, she lived in Nashville in a high rise one-bedroom apartment with meals provided. Then we moved her to a studio apartment on Cool Springs Blvd. closer to us as she got older and finally to a nursing home also in Franklin. While here she progressed from cane to walker to wheelchair. Her mind gradually deteriorated. She had a terrible time adjusting in the years after Bill's dad died (1973) since he had done everything. But while in East Moline there were relatives to help out, mostly Rink Olson, her sister's husband, until he died, and then Mary Ann Lapaczonek, her niece by Cy's sister Toots. And then, of course, us. But the Belgian relatives and all their descendants, who are about as Belgian as we are, are all great people, and Bill and I look forward to seeing them again at the funeral.
Bill had taken a trip with his mom (by plane) back to East Moline, maybe 6 or 7 years ago, so that is the last time she was there. Together they visited Ann's remaining sister Helen (she had 4 sisters and her poor father was a farmer named Achiel but called John in America) and nieces and nephews. What I meant to imply was that her father probably wished for a boy to help with the hard work of a farm.
Ann definitely lost her hearing, but she never lost her smile. She lived 93 good years and died peacefully with no pain in her sleep of plain-old, old age.
Her funeral will be in East Moline in January, I believe the weekend of the 10th.
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