Dear Friends and Colleagues,
My dear Bob passed away today, Monday,
August 13.
On July 11 I enrolled him in Hospice at
Home, due to his increasing symptoms from (possibly) Lewy Body dementia and I
cared for him since then. Last Sunday morning he awoke with extreme
difficulties. The Hospice nurse came and felt he probably had a 'neurological
event' the Saturday evening before, perhaps while sleeping. She took him
to the Venice Hospice House at 6pm that night.
I visited him 90 minutes later. He was very
calm but not very responsive. I shared my reflections as I showed him 4 photos
-- his parents, his brothers Neil and Denny, our doxies Star and Matilda and
finally Bob and me. I also read two poems I had written (about the dogs!) and
a love letter highlighting and thanking him for the special times we shared as
a team in our community service/civil rights efforts, followed by our
strategic planning consulting, and finally in our various nature
adventures. We had had these discussions before and had agreed that
history had given us a fine ride! – and that hopefully we made the world a
little better. He died peacefully 5
hours later, 1:30 am, early Monday morning.
I’m grateful for the wonderful life and
marriage we had. I could ask for no more. Our home was one of peace,
love, respect, creative planning and always in anticipation of our next
birding or butterflying adventure. He
was always kind to others and was a terrific partner in our life work
together!
Many of you, our colleagues over the years,
wrote letters to him or telephoned him in the past 10 days. He was so
pleased to hear from you and I’m grateful that you reached out to us.
You shared your appreciation of his life and brought us great
joy.
My sister, Cecily, has been with me for 2
days and as an R.N. has given me guidance during this journey. Other friends
locally have compassionately reached out to me.
Bob has donated his brain to the University
of Miami Brain Endowment Bank to both confirm (or not) the diagnosis and to
contribute to their research. We will
be spreading his ashes in our Butterfly Garden and the Gulf of Mexico where he
proudly completed 990 SCUBA
dives to collect hundreds of vertebrate fossils.
Grace and Peace,
Cynthia
941-483-9165
