Monday, January 12, 2009

Juanita June Teach (Lidgard) 1920-2008


My Great Grandmother died yesterday at home, asleep, surrounded by her family. She hasn't been doing well for awhile and broke her hip a few weeks ago while in Hawaii and it has been downhill since then. This weekend all the family was called to come and visit her because she wasn't really waking up anymore and they were just keeping her comfortable. We didn't know how long she would last because of her pacemaker, but she died yesterday and my Dad told me he was by her side.

I am feeling very sad for my Great Aunt Sally right now. A year ago she was living with three people; her husband Lee, her mother (my g.grandmother) and her stepfather (my step-great grandfather and my ggma's fourth husband). My step-g.grandfather died earlier last year, my Great Uncle Lee died a couple of days after our wedding in October and now my grandmother. It has been a lot for her to handle and I'm not sure where she will go from here.

My g.grandma was 88 years old and only in the last six months or so has her memory even started going at all. She went to Hawaii only a few weeks ago to visit her son and always commented on how she needed to meet new men. She was funny and opinionated. I love that when I went to visit her in October, she told me that she really liked Obama. I wish I would have known more about her life; I don't even know much about my parents' lives when they were younger. My family is not big on sharing which is something I plan on changing with my own family. But she did tell me one story not too long ago.

I asked her how she got together with my g.grandfather; she told me the story of how when she was about 20 she was dating a Bohemian (her words, I didn't quite know what that meant) and her Mother did not like it one bit. Della forbid her from seeing the said Bohemian. So to spite her mother, Juanita married my great grandfather Ralph Irwin who was 20 years her senior. Well her mother was not happy about that either. Always the rebellious one!

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