Mother's Day loss - Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Another prompt by 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge. It's run by Amy Johnson Crow.

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Yesterday was Mother's Day in the US. This week, let's take a look at the mothers you're researching. (They do make up half of your family tree, after all!)

Usually on this day, I've posted about my mother, paternal and maternal grandmother, along with some of the others. However, this year's post about Mother's Day is one of sadness unfortunately. 

In April 2021 my husband lost his mother, Sue Yates. She had been in a nursing home or aged care facility for 9 months. She had a medical episode and someone found her and called an ambulance. From the hospital she went directly to the nursing home/aged care facility. 

Sue in 1997. Credit: J. Fitzgerald

During this time my husband lost contact with her as we saw her in the hospital in mid March 2020 just prior to lockdown for COVID-19. He did call and talk to her over the phone. However, one day he called and they put him through but it wasn't to her it was to a stranger. Come to find out, his mother had disappeared. 

However, upon making queries and talking to various nurses, he was lead to the aged care/aged care facility she was at. The downside no one knew who we were or why they didn't know about us. This brought us to around October or November 2020. 

My mother-in-law stabilized and then started to go downhill before she passed away in April 2021. 

Credit

It was, and is, a very tough time for everyone involved. In fact, it was only the day after Mother's Day when we received her death certificate in the mail. 

We spent Mother's Day with Brett's mother's - great grandmother, grandmother and mother - in the cemetery. 

Its been a very difficult time and yet its also a blessing for my mother-in-law to be in peace. 

An Update on My Mother

Just as an update, my mother is in a nursing home in the US. 

One of the last pictures I have of my mother and I together. This was taken in 2011. 

Credit: B.Fitzgerald

However, as I've been trying since November 2020 to call and talk to her, but the phone just rings out. I did try and call her for her birthday in March and now for Mother's Day but still haven't managed to actually talk to her. At this point, with COVID-19 I'm not sure if she's alive nor if she'd even remember she has kids due to her dementia. 

Past posts on Mother's Day. 

My post on Mother's Day in 2015.

My post on Mother's Day in 2017.

I have posted others about my mother's, grandmothers and various great grandmother's. If you want, you can just search the blog for these posts.