As you may or may not know, my family recently passed the 1 month mark since my grandmother’s quiet passing. I got off from work yesterday to a phone message from my aunt…
My grandfather died yesterday around 1 pm. It was due to a self inflicted gun shot wound. His wife had gone out to pick up some more medication for him. While she was gone, he shot himself. The clean up crew is going to be at the house today to pick up. His body is at the M.E. right now.
He and my grandmother had been divorced for roughly 8 years at this point. He had remarried a little over 3 years ago.
A little history- he had been diagnosed over 3 months ago with a gliobastoma multiforme that appeared on the speech center of his brain. He underwent surgery and they removed a vanilla wafer sized tumor then. He had been in the process of undergoing both radiation therapy and oral chemotherapy. He had, over the course of the past few months, lost control over his fine motor skills and walking ability on his right side. His speech was slurred (sounded like a stroke victim) and he was frustrated at not being able to vocalize himself or take care of himself.
I am not feeling anything really at this point. My uncle and aunt are very angry at him as is his wife. I don’t know if maybe because I saw how unhappy and miserable my grandmother was as she lost her independence that I ultimately feel like it was his choice. (No, I won’t turn into the next Dr. Death, lol) He was going to die, he just chose to hasten it. It makes it incredilbly hard this close to the holiday season to now have to deal with both of them being gone. Maybe it is all just shock. We were supposed to have a Christmas dinner with them next weekend.
On the bright side of life, I made an A on the bulk of my physics class and therefore don’t have to take the final. There’s one A and hopefully I can get an A or B in chemistry.
Sorry for the long post. Thanks for reading and letting me ramble. Off to work to deal with people shipping their holiday cheer.
Clay
Clay, I am so sorry that you lost your grandfather. I find it amazing that you can understand his decision.
Wow. I am so sorry to hear of your loss.
Hi there,
I am sorry to hear of your Grandfather’s death. Be sure to take plenty of time to get through this difficult period. Our thoughts and prayers are with your family at this difficult time.
Natalie
I am sorry about your losses.
Hang in there.
All the best,
Michelle
Claycat, I’m so sorry for all your losses this year. You’ve been through some very difficult times. I’m glad you feel you can share some of your sorrow with us.
My prayers are with you and your family,
Theresa
Clay, I am touched that you shared this with us. I am very sorry for your grandfather, first of all, and for all of the people he leaves behind. Your empathic ability to relate to his suffering in recent months says many good things about you, but then we knew that already after the wonderful things you told us about your grandmother.
This is going to be very hard for everyone and will take a long, long time to process and deal with. My heart goes out to all of you.
Mary
Thanks to everybody for your kind words. This has been a very weird ending to a strange semester. 
He did not want any memorial services, so my uncle and the widow, Liz (I guess she’s technically my step-grandmother?), gave the ok to have him cremated today.
My grandfather had asked his wife to let him have some “extra” pain medication to ease him out, but she said she couldn’t do it. This must have been early in the week before they had the hospice people come in (I am slowly piecing all of this togther). Anyway, Liz (including her Valium) hid all of the medications and either forgot about the .38 or didn’t know he had one. True to form, there was a small hole in the front and a large exit wound. Needless to say, we did not have a viewing…
Anyway, that’s the newest news from the world wide weird here in Dallas.
Clay,
So sorry to hear your news… My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.
Andrea
What sad news, yet I’m glad you posted here. My hopes and prayers for your family!
Dear Clay,
What a rough year you have had! You are an amazing person to be able to deal with 2 deaths in the family relatively close together and still stay on track for accomplishing your goals. You will be a wonderful physician someday. I am sorry for the loss of both of your grandparents.
My thoughts are with you.
Love,
Stacy
Clay,
I am sorry to hear about your grandfather’s death. I know it must be hard on your family right now, and my thoughts and prayers are with you.
Kathy in Richardson