Thank you for coming to Mary's blog.  We have neglected it for some time, as things have been up and down with Mary's health.  It is hard to post "She is sick and in the hospital, again," only to follow it with "She is home and doing well, again."  Mary had a rough year with her health continuing to decline and her fabulous doctors (no sarcasm, she had the best!) not knowing what was going on.

May 26th, Mary was having hard time breathing and Debbi took her to the ER.  Mary was collecting fluid around her lungs and heart, again.  It was pretty bad and they drained 1 1/2 liters off the left side of her body that night.  They had to intubate her and hook her up to all kinds of machines and monitors.  Then they transferred her to Huntsman's ICU.

Sunday was a difficult day, in which they did a lot of testing and Mary had lots of visitors.  She wasn't able to speak to us, but was entertaining us all with writing her comments to us.  She was her usual chipper and happy self.  Same Mary.  Same hospital.  Different department (ICU at Huntsman is new and her last ICU visit was at the U).

Monday, the doctors told Mary that the fluid was due to GVHD and that they were not able to stop it from happening.  They could prolong her life by keeping her on the machines and keeping her in the hospital, but that it was only a matter of time before the condition of her body would kill her.  (She had many other issues that were contributing to very poor health.)  Mary chose at that time to have the tubes and monitors removed and be put on comfort care (ie allowed to die).

The hospital made arrangements to move her to the BMT unit, where she and Debbi had spent so much time, as she was not supposed to live through Wednesday.  (I will have to give more detail on what happened during this time, later.  It is late and I have a busy weekend ahead of me.)

Thursday, when Mary was still alive, arrangements were made to send her home on hospice care.  Debbi mentioned that she thought if Mary lived through the weekend, she might be able to go to the temple!  (Mary's bishop and a member of the Stake Presidency had gone to the hospital to give Mary her temple recommend interviews and granted her recommends to get her live endowment done and to be able to visit the temple on Monday, May 28th, when she wasn't supposed to live more than two more days.)

Mary lived!  Tuesday, June 5th, 2012 Mary went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple to make sacred covenants with Heavenly Father.  It was an amazing experience to be there with her.  The temple held a special session for Mary.  It was amazing!

Mary outlived all estimates of her longevity.  She died when she was good and ready, and figured it out (She told her hospice RN, Scott, that she wanted to die, but couldn't figure out how!)  We were very blessed to have the extra three weeks with Mary.  She continued to teach us lessons on living during her dying.  It was beautiful and something we will always treasure.

I will try to find some of the updates Debbi emailed and post them.

Here is the email she sent out last 6/17/2012:

Hi all,

I just wanted to share with you all that Mary returned to her Heavenly Father last night shortly after 9:00 pm.  It was a privilege and a pleasure to have been her mother.  She has been a source or strength and courage to me on may occasion.  She had a knowledge of the eternal nature of our mortal existence and was looking forward to being reunited with her earthly father and brother. I have felt her energy joy at being freed from this existence to join her ancestors in celebrating her return home.  Happy Fathers Day Sterling!!! She is no longer bound by her physical body and rejoicing at being home again.  Thank you all for your love and support through her trials.  We love you all very much and wants you all to remember that families are eternal, our relationships here and how we treat others is the legacy we leave behind.  Kiss your children, hug your siblings and love and honor your parents.  Services will be this coming weekend, with a viewing on Friday and the funeral on Saturday.

Love always,

Debbi