Synopsis - Chapter 26
January 2007 to January 2009
Cherry Street, Neptune Beach
After Dad passed away in January, 2005, Mother continued to live at their home in Cypress Village. After suffering a stroke in November, Mother stayed at Cypress Village skilled nursing center for 3 weeks. From there she went to live at Grafton House, a family style assisted living facility in a 2 story house, in St. Augustine. After a year and some difficulties there, and a short stay for Mom at St. Johns Rehabilitation Center in St. Augustine, I rented a house at 219 Cherry Street in Neptune Beach from Jim and Phyllis Dickson, to move in with Mom and take care of her myself. Judith Nicholson came in Monday through Friday, while I cleaned my pools. Judith was a large, fun, Jamaican woman, who liked to fish. She had a boyfriend, James, and a cute 10 year old daughter, Pilar. Judith was good to Mother and took good care of her.
Mother was a good soldier and never complained about anything. She had dementia from strokes and couldn't walk, but seemed to still enjoy her life. She was always smiling and agreeable, well almost always. She sat in the Florida room with a picture window view of the back yard and a wide screen tv. Judith took her on car rides daily and we wheeled around the neighborhood occasionally.
The house was two story, with four bedrooms, and a guest cottage. It had a big fenced in back yard. We had company often and it was a fun house. We had several good parties there including a going away party for Glenn before he went to Viet Nam, my 60th birthday party, and a couple of lifeguard parties when of course, the cops came. It was two blocks from the beach and Town Center in Neptune Beach.
I sold my pool cleaning business to Paul Taylor in August of 2008, to have more time to take care of Mother and to save money. I let Judith go in September. Two weeks after attending Judy Cissel's 90th birthday party, Mom got pneumonia for the second time in two months and succumbed on November 13. She passed away at 5 o'clock which is cocktail hour/quitting time, and the moon was full. We had a service for her on Sunday on the beach in front of Cherry Street. Rusty Johnston came up from Orlando to be in charge of the service and offer prayers. On Monday, myself and a crew of Jax Beach lifeguards rowed 1/2 of Mother and Dad's ashes out to sea in front of the lifeguard station. Rosemary, Anna, Edwin, and Karen were there. We spread the other 1/2 of their ashes the next year in May in the mountains of North Carolina, as was their wish. There is a blog with pictures, http://bandjservice.blogspot.com/, and a link to a flickr site with more pictures, http://www.flickr.com/photos/35827145@N08.
I lived full time with Mother, and Karen came up on weekends to keep me company. Rosemary came up most weekends too from St. Augustine. In January of 2009, I moved back into our house in Dolphin Cove with Karen.
