What an emotional rollercoaster of a week. Let me preface by going back in time. The Jacox Family reunion was two weeks ago. That's Jonathan's maternal side. Originally, the reunion was supposed to be at 1 o'clock in Provo (10 minutes from our house), but was changed to 4 o'clock in Bountiful (an hour and 15 minutes from our house). Before the time change, we had planned to attend a church activity. Since the reunion was early in the day and close to home, we had plenty of time to get home for the church activity-- a private rental of the local pool. We had already invited several neighbor families to come with us to the pool, so when the reunion time and location changed, we reneged on our plans to attend. But the night before, I could not sleep. I was up all night with the overwhelming feeling that we needed to forgo the pool and go up to the family reunion. So I sent out texts and messages that morning, apologizing to the friends we had invited. We went to the reunion and saw the frail but always happy and smiling Grandma Jacox. We took pictures with her and expressed our love to her, and had her love expressed to us in return. The reunions are, after all, mostly done in her behalf. She is alone in the sense that her husband has long since passed away, but we are her posterity, and Grandma feels such joy when she spends time with us all.
A week after the reunion, we received a text from Joanne (Jonathan's mom) that Grandma was in the ICU with pneumonia and extremely low blood pressure. She had also suffered a heart attack upon her arrival to the hospital. She was incoherent and on a ventilator. We all flooded Joanne's inbox with messages for her to read aloud, messages that were really meant as goodbyes, expressing our love and gratitude for Grandma. It seemed that Grandma was just waiting for her last 2 children to arrive to say goodbye. They did, and as Grandma was surrounded by her eight beautiful children, she was also given a Priesthood blessing. Miraculously, she started doing better. She was coherent, able to talk, able to enjoy visiting with those who came to see her.
Though grateful for her improved condition, I was surprised. When we heard about Grandma's hospitalization, I had believed that those strong feelings I had to go to the reunion were part of a divine intervention to tell Grandma goodbye. To give us and our children one more memory of being with her-- one last opportunity to express our love to her in person. But every day we received updates from Joanne informing us of how Grandma was improving and how much better she was feeling.
And then Friday morning, I was in the middle of shopping when I read the following email from Joanne: "Grandma is not doing well today. Kidney failure, and needs a transfusion. She's declined. She sends her love to you and says she loves you so much! She misses dad. Please pray for her to have a smooth passing." There I stood, in the middle of Walmart, crying all over again. I have grown to love this woman as if she were a grandmother that I have known since birth. And though I never had the opportunity to meet Grandpa Jacox, I have always felt a connection to his and Grandma's relationship by the simple fact that their wedding anniversary is on my birthday.
Yvonne Young Jacox passed away this morning, and though I feel so sad for her passing, I also feel peace. I am grateful for the promptings that led us to go to the family reunion. I am grateful for that last memory etched in our hearts. I am grateful for the life of this amazing woman and the example that she has set for me. And I am grateful to know that we will be reunited with Grandma again one day, just as she is now reunited with loved ones who have gone on before.... including Gordon, her sweetheart of fifty-eight years.
