In passing, my grandmother's obituary

Lorene Pannell Choate Ill, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and sister, is a new angel, received by the heavens Monday Jan. 9, 2012. She is being met by her family with open arms as she was the key to our family. Service: 10 a.m. Friday at Blessing Funeral Home. Interment: Pleasant Point Cemetery. Visitation: 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Blessing. She was born Aug. 27, 1931, in Kennedale as the oldest of nine children. Her parents were Susie Mae Lawler Pannell and Hubert Condor Pannell. Lorene lived most of her life in the Metroplex. She worked in the food service area at various locations in Fort Worth, such as the old Texas Hotel, Don Carter's Bowling Alley, The Lonestar Drive-In and Ramada Inn. Her last job before retirement was at the Walmart in Mansfield, where she worked in the fabric area. Lorene was an avid bowler. She bowled at Meadowbrook Lanes for many years. When the new Don Carter's Bowling Alley opened, she bowled on many different leagues over the years. She was a member of the Ladies Traveling League for many years and traveled to a different bowling lane each month. Her time was spent watching soap operas and keeping up with all her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She was always doing some kind of needlework, either embroidery or crochet. She was a born gambler. If you said Las Vegas or Shreveport, she was ready to go. She got her numbers every week for the Lotto, Mega Millions, Pick 3 and Pick 4. Lorene got excited just because she won $3 on one of her tickets. Lorene was preceded in death by her sons, Mark Randall Choate and Carl William Choate Jr.; and husbands, Bill Choate and Pete Ill. Survivors: Daughters, Joyce LaHue and husband, John, of Alvarado, Debra J. Sandefur and husband, Clyde, of Bakersfield, Calif., and Barbara G. Allen of Shelbyville, Tenn.; sons, Steven Choate of Wolfe City and Douglas Choate of Midwest, Okla.; daughter-in-law, Shelah Choate of Garland; brothers, Edwin Pannell and wife, Jo, of Vallejo, Calif., Tommy Pannell and wife, Lynn, of Joshua and Dan Pannell and wife, Merilea, of Weatherford; 23 grandchildren; and 30 great-grandchildren.

Lorene Pannell Choate Ill Obituary: View Lorene Ill's Obituary by Star-Telegram

Sadness in Passing

So late last evening Granny was taken off her life support and was woken up. Against certain odds for a while she was doing well. There was talk even of moving her from her nursing home back to the hospital to be cared for better.

That hope, sadly, passed. Though some miscommunication we'd received the word hours before the event actually happened. However, as of an hour ago, she passed on. I will miss my Granny, Susie Lorene Pannell dearly, and for the rest of my own life.

Feeling Sad

For as long as I can remember I've only had one grandparent, Granny Lorene. On my mother's side my grandfather died 6 or so years before I was born. My paternal grandmother as well passed before I was born. I have a single memory of Granpa Sandefur (again on my father's side). I had to have been 2 or 3 and remembered looking up at this tall man that had the whitest hair I'd seen to date. I mean STARK white. And all I could think of was, at this young age, "Who is this guy with white hair and why does he talk to me so much?" No, really, I remember that feeling. Again, however, this was a fleeting image in my mind, as he died before I really was able to bond and form memories with him.

So this leaves but the mother of my mother: Granny Lorene. Don't you dare call her Grandmother, it was Granny. I don't know what I can say about her without having to take a year to fill pages upon pages. Sadly that's time I don't have. I got the call at 11:30am today, a sunny Sunday morning in Arizona. The past 3 years or so Granny has been in a nursing home due to her pulmonary problems. This past weekend an email went out that she was being put on a respirator due to a bout of pneumonia. And now.... she's being taken off the machine and most likely will not make it through the night.

I'm sitting here in my dorm room right now. I closed the blinds and put on some jazz (thank you Spotify) and have been trying to pick up my brain to write this in between fits of sobbing. When a mainstay in your life, the fact that you have a grandparent at least. When something like this comes down the line the stress it causes... I will be fine, if only because I still have other family and friends to see me through.

The Price of Education

An interesting set of conversation came up in my computer class last night. Our teacher has several times in the past talked to us about the plight of the community college system here in California, so having her walk in and let us know the latest developments wasn't unusual.

Coastline District, which houses OCC where I attend, is loosing $2.6 billion. We're looking at more class cuts, less faculty, and possibly a $10 increase in per unit tuition. And this is for in-state students. A guy that sits next to me in class, George, move this year from Miami, FL. He paid $800 ($200/unit for out-of-state, 4 until class in C++) and nearly jumped out of my seat when he told me that.

Something else came out of the conversations. Our teacher mentioned "You know we here in state have the cheapest tuition. other states are worse." Me being of a curious sort I decided to check out a local college, Mesa Community, to see what their rates were.

My heart sank a little when I saw the costs:

I'm not going to complain that my classes this semester cost $182. I got 7 units, but at their rate I wouldn't even get 3.

When politics goes violent: The Shooting of Rep Giffords

Oh lord and lady: My heart goes out to AZ Rep Gabrielle Giffords and the others (at least 12 reported right now) whom were shot at today at an event in Tuscon, AZ. So far reports are that Giffords is out of surgery, fixing up the gunshot to her head. She's in critical condition. 6 others, including a federal judge, are dead.

Still on a path (Father Update)

So, contrary to someone's thoughts (which, mind you, gave me a needed laugh there Brooklyn) my father did go back to work after my last update. He'd kinda pushed himself back into it I guess in an attempt to have something to do. I guess in not having much more to day I'd neglected to keep and updated post on him. Sorry there ^_^.

He's gone through various modes of healing: Compression socks (which ended up being too tight and giving him more sores) to get circulation in his legs back, more antibiotics, and daily cleanings (done by my sister since he doesn't have the mobility to do them himself). One bothering thing was a sore he has had on his right toe. It wasn't getting any better, but not getting worse either. Doctor recently said it might take a year or so to heal, with anecdotal story of a 3 year long healing process from one patient.

If you know my father by now, you know he diabetes and lack of circulation in his legs causes issues. So this past Wednesday my sister Shawna, the one whom lives with my parents, calls me to let me know that things are not look as good again. He'd taken a night off of work with a fever a few nights before. Now his toe was starting to have it's wound seep. Infection returned it seemed.

Last night I got the most oddest of calls. My father let me know that his doctor made a decision to amputate said toe and needed a driver for this evening. I said yes, and quietly sulked at the thought.

This morning I got even worse news: Shawna calls me at 9 to let me know she's been awoken. The doctor has upped the time table as he feels there might be more at risk than just the toe. Given the time of this post he's probably being processed at the hospital, with some tests to determine exactly how far 'up' they'll need to cut.

I'm not in a greatest of moods now, sadly. :(

Well this is sad: Two tour buses of High School Band members crash, two dead

I was a bando in high school. For those that might not know the term, it means I was a member of the Estancia High School Marching Band. I played the baritone horn, and a little sousaphone, during my 4 years in high school. One of the only things I miss from those years is the camaraderie of the group. We were family, in a way. I still kind of keep in touch only with those I knew during those years.

In all, we were a family: We fought each other and for each other. We loved one another as family and more. We weren't the greatest players but we didn't care. Our director, Linda, was both stern and kind. While those may be opposites in a normal world, in the bando-verse it means she pushed us to be the best we could be, but not to the point we hated her. Sadly, after I graduated in 1998, some rather unsavory elements (read: holier-than-thou students/parents) pushed the wrong buttons and Linda retired some years later. All in all though it was good times while I was there.

So you may be asking yourself where I'm going with this. Well, each year of band we would do what we called Tour. Tour was basically a gigantic field trip. In my years we normally went to San Fransisco (one year, my senior, was Las Vegas), when to a competition or something, then came home. It was a week long adventure of marching, playing games on the ride there, pulling pranks. We even had a tradition of stealing a road sign, preferably one that wasn't going to cause traffic accidents, to take back to the band room.

These two points, the traffic and the bus rides, brings me to a sad story today. Two bus-loads of students from a Missouri high school collided with a pickup and a semi-trailer. Two were killed: The pickup driver and one student. My heartfelt remorse over the loss of both the driver, Daniel Schantz, and the student Jessica Brinker and her family who have now lost a loved one. When you are in a group like that, even in a big city (these students were from a town of about 600 or so from what I gather), I can only imagine the pain this tragic accident has caused.

In the end we, where I went, were family. Though we never had this tragedy I would never wish it upon my worst enemies. It would make those enemies even madder at me than normal.