Military Honor for my Dad

For anyone that may be interested, I have posted pictures of the Military Honor portion of my Dad's funeral. This was done graveside with full honors. The pictures are available for viewing at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/SchultzTravelPhotos

A Farewell To A Father

April 20, 2008, 10:25 pm. John J. Jones went to a new home to be with his Lord, and his wife and son who preceded him in death along with many friends and relatives.


I lost a wonderful father, my children lost a terrific grandfather and there are those who are now one friend less.


My Dad lived a full, happy, busy life. He spent 20 years in the Air Force, spending time in Italy and Africa during WWII. He served a tour of duty in Saigon, Vietnam. He took his family with him when sent to Okinawa and the Philippines. Stateside he was stationed in IL, NJ, FL and MS. But, not only did he retire from the USAF, he was a terrific salesman who could sell ice cubes to an Eskimo and is now probably trying to sell wings to angels! He sure had the gift of sales. Just a few of the areas of sales he was in was hearing aids, insurance, RV's and his most favorite and last area of sales was flea marketing. He and my mom would travel to PA every summer to sell at several small town festivals. When they decided to stop traveling, he set up shop at the Indoor Flea Market in Foley, AL where he had a booth for about 5 years. Even when he moved into Live Oak Assisted Living, he had a shelving unit in his closet where he kept some flea market items to sell to the staff and residents. The staff all remarked last evening that they will always remember "JJ" as he was affectionately known, because their houses were full of items he convinced them that they needed.

My son has done a great tribute in pictures to his grandfather. To view, please go to the following link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2048395&l=5cc20&id=45107439

This is my farewell to my father who I will miss dearly but I will always have in my heart many wonderful memories to remember. I love you Daddy......

Nearing The End

This past Sunday, David and Suze drove down from Montgomery to visit their "Pop-pop". Luckily he was having a good day. We visited with him for several hours, just talking about stuff in general.

One thing I haven't mentioned before is that my Dad always wears a red hat - I forget what they are called, but I call them the English golfing hats - kinda a flat type. Anyway, when my son and daughter were getting ready to leave, Suze put on his red hat and said "bye Pop-pop". He turned to say goodbye and saw her with his red hat on and jokingly said "you can't have that, it's my hat, put it back"! We all had a good laugh from this - one of his last.

Daddy with his "red hat" on his favorite toy!

The pastor from Marlow UMC stopped to visit him on Sunday also. He informed me that he had a really nice visit and that as long as he asked direct questions, Daddy was very responsive.

Dean and I returned to see Daddy later Sunday afternoon and he didn't remember the visit from him. He did remember his grandchildren being there though.

I'm so glad he had this day.

Monday, Dean and I noticed a change in him. Very quiet and wouldn't eat - would only drink milk. Layed in bed all day mostly sleeping. Tuesday morning I received a call from Liveoak that he had become quite agitated that morning and refused his morning meds. When we arrived we found him lying in bed, sleeping, but not a restful sleep. When he would wake up he would speak a few words, most of which were not understandable and he seemed to be in a state of confusion. The hospice nurse came mid-morning and checked his blood oxygen levels and found that they were low so started him on oxygen. We hired a sitter to come in and stay with him Tuesday night.

Wednesday morning when we returned to his apartment we found the floor CNA and the nurse from Liveoak in the room, attempting to get him to take his meds and put a t-shirt on. Seems that Tuesday night he became highly agitated and fought to take the oxygen off, his shirt off and the bed sheets off. Well, this continued all day Wednesday. Hospice did bring some medicine for anxiety and it seemed to help a little during the day. We again, hired a sitter for the night, except I had to return at 9pm to give him the anxiety medication. As to why I had to do this is a long story and I won't expand on it here. At 9 pm, when I arrived, he was in an extremely agitated state. I did manage to get his medicine in him by smashing the pills and mixing them with applesauce. At 10:30 I called Hospice as he still hadn't settled down - kept trying to take the oxygen off or remove his shirt. The sitter and I sat on each side of the bed holding his hand to try to calm him. At 1 am the Hospice nurse came and immediately said "I can't believe that your not on "Crisis Care". I told him that I couldn't believe it either, that I had told the nurse that I thought it was time, but felt like I was ignored. The nurse upped the dosage of anxiety medicine, gave him more and after about 30 minutes, Daddy finally drifted off to sleep. Dean and I stayed until 2 am and then came home to grab a few hours sleep as we had to return by 6:30 am.

Thursday morning when we returned to Liveoak, Daddy was still resting comfortably. As the day progressed, Hospice did place him under "Crisis Care" which means that there is now a nurse 24/7 and it takes a lot of the stress off of Dean and me. The goal is to keep him resting comfortably until the end.

I didn't mention that on Wednesday he did turn and look at me one time. I asked him if he knew who I was and he said "yes, your Virginia". My heart stopped, as that was my mother who died in 2002. He then turned his head back and shut his eyes to sleep some more. I like to think that he did see his wife of almost 60 years and that she is indeed there to lead him home.

With that, I'll end this post....

April Showers Bring .......

Well, if the April showers are supposed to bring May flowers, the flowers didn't know it, that is the Azalea's anyway. They are so beautiful this year and the bushes are so full of blooms. I haven't had my camera with me to take any pictures but will try today or tomorrow to get some. We are supposed to have some bad weather this weekend and if we do that will be the end of the azalea's - they don't do well in rain and wind. The dogwoods, apple trees and pecans are also starting to bloom/bud. Spring really is here - yea!

For my loyal readers, please bare with me right now. I'm posting a lot here about my Dad because I want to have a journal of his events to refer back to. I know it isn't as exciting as a true travel journal is. Our dream (again) is to be able to get back on the road to see all the neat places we haven't seen. I am so happy for everyone that is out there on the road, but right now I'm not able to even read about it as I get to depressed doing so. I do peak every now and then just to see where everyone is at. I will catch up with your blogs one day, after we are back on the road.

We took my Dad out for a haircut yesterday but he didn't seem to be in a very good mood. He complained that his mouth (jaw) was stiff. Thankfully, the hospice nurse came yesterday afternoon and checked him out. She wasn't to concerned as he was able to move his jaw and said that it wasn't as bad as it had been earlier. She ordered some morphine for him for the pain. You have to understand my Dad, he won't complain of pain or hurt. If you as him if he has any pain anywhere he says NO! So, for him to complain of this it must have really been hurting.

He does have some good days but also has the bad ones and yesterday was one of the bad ones. Just wanted to sit on the side of the bed or lay down, didn't want to talk. He seemed very irritable - probably the jaw had a lot to do with it. As usual he wouldn't eat anything, but did have a Glucerna. Thanks goodness for those as they are his only source of nutrition now. The facility had their monthly "weigh-in" yesterday and he came in at 141 lbs. That was good as last month he was at 142 so he's only lost one pound. This past Sunday was one of his good days. We got him to get on his electric scooter and go outside. He stayed out, riding his scooter around the loop, down by the pond to see the ducks, and through the wooded area (there is a sidewalk). I guess he was outside for about 2 hours. Later that afternoon, after we had left, my sister came to visit and then my niece and her husband showed up also. He related to me on Monday that he really had a busy Sunday with all the company he had. He also said he slept good Sunday night. I guess we wore him out!

Tomorrow Dean and I are getting away for the day. We are going to Carpenters Campers in Pensacola for their "show". They have seminars scheduled from 10am to 3 pm dealing with a lot of do-it-yourself maintenance. They are not doing brand specific things, but general items like a/c, water heaters etc. along with some minor engine maintenance. I hope we can pick up some good tips. This weekend is also the Pensacola RV Show but I don't think we are going. I looked on-line at the supplier/vendor list and didn't see anything that we are interested in. This is a very small show so I'm not surprised. We have been looking for someone who makes the windshield sunscreen covers but haven't had any luck in the local area. I've seen several advertised in the FMCA magazine, but really hate to order long distance. To much chance it won't fit right.

Have fun wherever you are. See ya!