The Tree

What a gloomy day! The rain is welcome though. This morning Tim was out mowing. I thought I would do some hoeing and weeding in my garden and see if it needed watering. (Don't need the water now.) Then I noticed my rhubarb patch. I was tired of looking at all those weeds growing in and around the rhubarb. It was cool so I put on my long sleeved sweatshirt. After I finished with that Leah and I hoed and weeded half of the garden before it started to rain.

I had put a roast with potatoes in the oven this morning so we had that for lunch. Tim had to leave early to try and take care of some of his dad's estate business. Tonight is his first night back at work since his dad passed.

I guess I didn't share how Dick died so I will do that now and then get to the tree. On Friday, July 3, the little kids and I went up to town for what I thought would be a quick trip. I needed to take something to Dustin. I called him. As he had worked until 3 a.m. he was still sleeping so I told him I would be there in a few minutes. I wanted him to be able to let me into the house. Dustin has been living in Dick's basement for about a year.

We always go into the house through the garage. Leah went in first followed by Daniel and then me. I heard Leah gasp. It was a bright day and the garage was dark so it took my eyes a few seconds to adjust. There was Dick laying at the bottom of the steps, face down on the cement! I quickly got the kids out of there and dialed 911 on my phone. I was a bit frantic. At that point I didn't know that he was dead. As I was talking to the lady on the phone I noticed that his back wasn't moving up and down. I felt him and he was cold. I realized that he was dead and told the lady as much.

I got the little ones into the house. They were still standing on the driveway whispering to each other. Such a thing for them to experience! I talked with them awhile and got them settled in the living room. They knew where Grandma and Grandpa always kept the toys so they got them out and started to play.

Dustin and I talked about what could have happened while we waited for the police to arrive. I called Tim's sister, Tracey, and told her. She came immediately from work. I only got Mike's, Tim's brother, answering machine and left a message saying it was important that he call me back at his dad's house. AsTim had worked all night he was sleeping and wouldn't hear the phone but I tried anyway. He didn't answer so I left a message for him to call me.

The police questioned us and tried to figure out what had happened. It appeared to them that he had been dead for several hours. I found him around noon. The coroner was Dr. Johnson. It was nice to see a familiar face. He had been our older kid's doctor way back when. He looked over all Dick's medications and said that he was sure Dick had had a massive heart attack. From the way he way laying face down with his arms down and hands facing backwards, he figured Dick was gone before he hit the floor as he didn't use his hands to try to protect himself from the fall. It was reassuring to us that he hadn't lain there waiting for someone to come help him.

I called Brandon at work. He went home and woke Tim and rode with him up to town. Mike also called back and got to his dad's place. I talked with Ryan and he told Whitney. She came up, too. I think the whole family was there except for Tim's mom. Tim's uncle ( Joan's brother) and aunt came to the house from their lake home. They went with us to tell Tim's mom. We thought she understood that Dick died but has probably forgotten. We felt we needed to tell her though.

My good friend Renee had come and picked up the little kids. They love going there so they were happy. We took care of what we could that day and were exhausted by the time we got home. It's still seems unreal that Dick is really gone.

This last Sabbath as we were getting ready for church someone drove into the yard. It was Michelle. She and her husband Ray had got us a tree in honor of our dad. She said someone had done that for her and Ray when Harris died and it meant alot to her. It was very touching to us and will be a nice reminder of Dick everytime we look at the tree.

After some discussion about where to plant it we decided to put it on the west side of the house. We have another tree on the sw corner that is the same size and type this tree will be. We put the new tree on the nw corner and thought it will look really nice there.

Here's Tim and the kids digging the hole.



Still digging!

They wanted to play in the hole awhile.

Filling in the hole with dirt.

A job well done!