vel's journaly thing

Oma's funeral/memorial? was on Saturday, December 4th. I guess you can't really call it a funeral since she wasn't buried anywhere. But it was a really nice service and the church was completely packed with all her friends and family and students and colleagues and so on; seriously, standing room only...she knew people from everywhere. Her best friend Maxine, who's known her since 1935, told her biography and lots of funny anecdotes. Oma had written that we shouldn't be sad, and to play a good polka or waltz for her.

After the memorial everyone went down the street to a school she used to teach at, and where my aunt works part time now and both my cousins went to for elementary school, because the reception was held in the cafeteria there. Pretty appropriate for a school teacher I think. The night before we had set up tables and chairs and decorations and stuff, but waaaay more people came than expected, so there weren't enough seats and we ran out of food and had to go buy more. It was good, though. My uncle had made a powerpoint slideshow with over 100 pictures of Oma from throughout her life taken from her photo albums, and that was shown on the screen on the stage. Also the cafeteria had a TV and VCR on the wall, and a news tape was played of Oma being interviewed and dancing in her folk dance group from October. My mom and aunt spent the entire time talking to Oma's friends; I don't think either of them ever got the chance to even sit down. Now they can finally rest for a while.

My parents are on a cruise in the Caribbean. They were originally supposed to leave on Friday, but then all this happened and the funeral was planned for Saturday. They debated cancelling the trip altogether, but that's definitely not what Oma the world-traveler would have wanted. So instead they changed their flights and left late Saturday night and will be gone for the rest of the week. I hope they have some fun because they need it.

I guess it's about time to go back to mundane crap. I'm waaaaaay behind on my schoolwork in every class. I'm going to fail my anime class since I haven't been to it in about four weeks and I didn't write the paper, but that doesn't matter since it's a completely meaningless community college class and no one will ever see the transcript from that school. I haven't even *started* the final project for my intercultural communication class, but I talked to the teacher and he says I can get an incomplete and turn it in next semester due to the circumstances. My English structures class is really the one I have to get working on because I'm doing it with a partner. These past few weeks she's been working on the assignments alone, and they're due today. Then the final project where they're all combined is due next Monday. She and the teacher have both been very understanding, but I feel bad about her having to do all that work herself because I haven't been able to help.

I've added to my profile to reflect this uber-sucky year. Rest in peace Oma and Sierra.

Oma passed away earlier today. She was 83 and I know she led a long, happy, healthy, active life, and that I should be thankful for that, but it was still cut short unnaturally early. She was a wonderful woman and didn't deserve to end her days the way she did. She was a schoolteacher for 30 years, and continued to tutor children even after she retired, right up until the present in fact. She loved to travel and visited many countries all over the world from South America to Europe to Australia. Every time we went to visit she had just come back from another trip and had lots of pictures and stories and souvenirs to share. Her parents came to America from Germany, and she spoke German and had a lot of German friends, as well as many, many friends and colleagues and students of all ages. She was an active folk dancer and bowler and hiker, as well as the world's best cook (I'm not kidding, she's won lots of awards for her desserts). She was well loved and will be dearly missed by everyone who ever knew her. Her final wish is for her ashes to be spread over a local rose garden.




Thank you to everyone for your kind support; this has been a really rough time for me and my family, especially my mother and aunt.

Things are looking iffy with Oma. Her lungs aren't doing well, and at this point they don't know if they'll get better or worse. If they get worse then they'll never get better. Even if she does get better, there's no telling how much brain damage she may have due to all the bleeding. My parents are still with her and my brother and I are going to go down there tomorrow night or Friday morning. She is NOT supposed to go like this. She's always been a strong, active woman, and she always said she'd live to be 100 like those other old people on the news. And she could have easily done it, too. Now that's all been taken away at 83 because some fucktard ran a red light. I hope we sue him for everything he has. I'll never forgive him for this, and I can hold a grudge forever.

WTF is going on?? Tonight at class I found out one of the professors in my department had a heart attack today; he was one of my teachers last semester. He's in the hospital but it sounds like he'll be okay.

Oma is still in critical condition. In addition to the injuries I mentioned earlier she also has bleeding in the brain and a cut liver. She was touch and go for a while, but now at least she's stable. She'd better be fine...if I ever meet the person who did this to her I'll fucking kill em.

I just found out my maternal grandmother, Oma, was in a serious car accident. She was on her way to seniorcize this morning (the same place she broke her hip in February. I'm beginning to think this thing is a death trap for her) and was broadsided. Now she has a broken pelvis and broken rips and a concussion and is drifing in and out of consciousness. Both of my parents left work and are heading down to Fresno to see her right now; unfortunately my brother and I have to stay here to go to school and take care of the animals. You know, with the exception of the anime conventions, this year has just plain sucked for me and my family.