I never did write an e-mail about the last day of Ed's life.  I realize many people didn't know how he passed.

I got a call from the hospital about 10 am on 7/3/08 and the hospital nurse said that Dad's blood pressure was very low.  She said it was 54/45 or something like that.  I said to her that it was better than it was the night before.  I really thought that he was a bit better.  In fact we sisters had talked to Tom that night and told him we didn't think that it was time for him to come, and that he would pull out of it as he had done in the past.

I didn't leave work when the nurse called at 10 am since we had planned to be at the hospital at noon to meet with the hospice company.  I thought that we would have plenty of time and since his blood pressure was higher than last night, all was fine.

At 10:45 am I got a call from Jerry's Aunt who was visiting Dad at the hospital and she told me Dad looked really bad and that his blood pressure was very low 30/20 and to get up at the hospital right away. She was there with Fred and no one else was there.   I told her I would leave immediately.  I ran out of work and called Joan to get up to the hospital.  Joan was waiting to get up to hospital for the meeting at noon and was preparing the crock pot for our dinner that evening. 

I also called Anna and Jerry and told them to get to the hospital ASAP as they were at work too.

I was just getting on the freeway when I got a call from Fred and he said "Mr. Ed isn't breathing, we called the nurse and she is on her way."  Again, I didn't panic since Dad had these breathing episodes when he would stop breathing for about a minute and started back up again.  No one else called me on my way home.  I didn't call Anna and tell her anything else.  I figured that would have called me back to tell me that he died.

So I was driving like a mad woman, crying and speeding.  All of a sudden, I felt like Dad was in the truck with me and I told him that I was ok and that he would be with Eleanore, his brothers, his sisters and his parents and he would have a great time and he wouldn't be in any pain any more.  I instantly had this feeling of calmness, I stopped crying and in that instant, felt that he was gone.

Joan was only 10 minutes away from the hospital and she got there pretty quickly.  We figure she was somewhere in the hospital when he passed, only Martha and Fred were with him.

Anna arrived soon after I did and had called talked to Tom on her way and didn't know he had passed.  Everyone thought she knew.  The only thing she knew was that he was not doing well.  So much for our communication.

Anyway, Dad passed without anyone of the kids being with him.  I think that he wanted it that way.  He passed at 10:55 am Central time, but wasn't pronounced until 12:15pm (the official time on the death certificate).

Again, we kids didn't get either Mom or Dad into a hospice.  Mom passed on the official New Year's Day holiday (1/2/06) and hospice was coming the next morning and Dad passed 1 hour before they were to admit him.  Strange, neither make it to hospice and maybe they wanted it that way.