Mom lived her last 4 years of life in a long-term care nursing facility here in Hutchinson. And oh, how she hated it! But Mom knew there was no other option for her and so she just endured it. All during the month of September that year of 2007, her health steadily declined. By the time she had reached her 89th birthday on September 12th, we realized that she probably wouldn't be with us a whole lot longer.
The doctors had exhausted every available treatment and medicine for her ailments to absolutely no avail. As her kidneys began to fail, we realized that we needed the help of our local hospice. Any of you who have ever been assisted by hospice workers know how these folks are surely "angels sent from God above."
By the morning of September 24th, Mom had decided that "enough was enough" and she just simply quit trying to get better. I think she just plain "surrendered". By mid-day, under the advice of our hospice nurse, we began to make frantically quick phone calls to family members close enough to get home in time to be with her before she passed away.
As late evening approached, nearly all of us who could get there had assembled in mom's room. I was sitting on her bed with her just watching her as she drifted in and out of the "morphine induced" sleep that she was in. About 9, she woke up and looked at me and that's when she gave me "the gift." As clear as a bell, eyes wide open, Mom gazed into my eyes and said, "Peggy Ann, you are a good girl."
I wanted to burst into tears but somehow got it together and I said to her "Thank you Mom." And that was it. She said no more coherent words to me and just a few hours after that, she was gone. I remember crawling up beside her in that bed and laying my head down on her chest and bawling just like I was a little baby. I had thousands of questions for her about life that I hadn't had time to ask yet and I didn't want to become an orphan without knowing the answers to at least some of them...But it was too late.
When I look at the "Miller Bucket List" and study the remaining ones that are not yet completed, my eyes always go back to #8-"To reconnect with my family members all over the United States once again." I believe that my mom would tell me that #8 is the most important of all .
By late next week, the remaining children of John and Lois Scott will gather once more here in Hutchinson for what has now turned out to be the "3rd Annual Scott Family Reunion." It will be the first time since 1993 to be able to see our sister, Kaye Wright from Sarasota, Florida. We are thankful for her son and daughter-in-law, Scott and Lisa Wright for driving their mom here. Because they are willing make the 2-day journey from Florida to Kansas, we all shall be reunited here at home. I owe a debt of thanks to Scott and Lisa-
It's my hope that mom would be glad that we all have tried to stick together in the years since she left us. I heard her say, more than once, that when she and daddy were gone that all we kids would have to hang onto were one another. And yet one more time I must say, "Mom, looks like you were right again!"
John and Lois Scott and their family-June 1, 1956
Child #6, hey that's me, is the baby. Our baby sister, Cindy, is the little twinkle in our daddy's eyes.
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