Joan Edwards

It has been a crazy week. On Monday, Chris got a call from his mom saying that his aunt was going to be put into a hospice. She has been on dialysis for the past few months, but this past week she hasn't been able to make it. The nurses were saying that if someone stops dialysis then they usually only last for seven days at the most. Chris headed to Salt Lake the next morning and he has been there ever since. Yesterday morning I got the call that aunt Joan had passed away. Chris sent me an article on kidney failure and dialysis, and it said that in the past kidney failure was known as a gentle way to go. Chris said that she was asleep most of the time, but when she was awake, she wanted to make sure everyone would be taken care of when she was gone. I think that may be the reason she lasted as long as she did. Joan was born while her father was in the war or shortly before he left (I hope I am getting the story right) and it was just her and her mother for five years before her dad came home. Her father passed away over twenty years ago, and it has been her and her mother ever since. They had a very close relationship and a very strong bond. When grandma passed away last November she had a really hard time with it and I think she really missed her. Joan had been admitted to the hospital eighteen times in the last year alone. When I first met aunt Joan she had just had a hip replacement surgery, and she has been ailing ever since I've known her. She was only sixty-four years old, but I am happy that she can finally have peace, I know it couldn't have been easy to live with the limitations of her earthly body. She is with her mother and father again, and I know that is bringing her joy. She wasn't able to have children of her own, but she doted on Chris and his brother and sisters, and she absolutely loved her grand nieces and nephews. She worked as a travel agent for many years so she was able to travel a lot, and she took Chris or his sisters with her sometimes. With my grandpa, Chris's grandma and now his aunt, it's been kind of a sad year for us, but I'm so happy that we have the faith in our lives that we will be able to see our loved ones again