A Huge Loss...

Ever since the very long ago "Back From The Beach" post I'd been meaning to post that my Grandfather had come home from his nursing home and was doing fantastically. He did, he really surprised us with his turnaround. He was in good spirits, laughing, eating, and gaining weight. He was doing out patient chemo and was almost done...one more treatment left. Then the worst happened, he fell ill again. He had an infection which had him in bed with fever, chills, nausea. After a few days of this, and a few doctor visits he finally was admitted to the hospital where they began giving him intervieneous antibiotics. He was so weak and tired once again and it was heartbreaking. He passed early Monday morning August 17. It's been devastating to our family. How can he be just fine, even the doctors saying that his cancer is being cleared, not in remission, but getting better? Then he falls ill with an infection, that almost anyone can get and that is what was so unkind to his already fragile body and compromised immune system and in the end took him from this earth.
It's been a long long month. There are so many changes, like my parents putting their life in their home aside so they can live with my Grandmother. My Grandma, she's held up well. It's her faith in God and knowing that he is at peace. Still though, she misses him so much, everyone does. Even Rylen, who cannot talk still, points to his picture every time we go to my Grandma's house, then he points at the chair he was always sitting in, then he shrugs his shoulders like he's asking "where is he". The older kids miss his yummy snow cones and they way he used to greet them with "hey dude".
This was part of his memorial which I was so proud to have written. I only wish I would have been more functional that day so I could have done a better job. It was very hard for me to do.

Jose, known to his family as “Papa” or “Pop”, was a strong man of faith, serving the Lord as a faithful Christian for 30 plus years and helping establish two churches during his lifetime. A hard working man, Jose worked at Acco Feeds for 22 years, a job he enjoyed. He was also a man of many hobbies. One of his passions was fishing the Guadalupe River or Lake McQueeney on the hunt for the biggest catfish he could find. He also enjoyed going out to his ranch with his sons to feed his animals, as well as rescuing stray animals, and also tending his vegetable garden. He will be remembered best by his grandchildren and great-grandchildren for making delicious snow cones in his snow cone stand. Jose was always willing to sit and chat about anything from the weather to his faith in God and will forever be missed by all those that knew and loved him.