Lucille Rhodes

Who is this lady? Born, Hazel Lucille (McKinney) Rhodes June 17, 1923 but not many know her as Hazel. For most, she is Lucille Rhodes. However, that is not the only name she is known by. Her Dad called her Cillie, her husband called her Honey and Luce, coworkers called her Hazel Nut or Ol' Granny Goat. For many years she was Bonsey the clown. Her grand kids and great grand kids call her Grandma Frog and the folks at Bronson Hospital know her as The Hat Lady. No matter what anyone calls her, everyone would have to agree that she is one of the sweetest ladies you will ever meet.

At 94, she was still living on her own, driving her car everywhere she needed to go and very active in every aspect of her life. All of that suddenly changed on Aug. 9, 2017. Two day before she said she didn't feel exactly well but "just couldn't put her finger on it". It didn't take long on the phone with her the morning of the 9th to realize that she needed to see a Dr. She was taken to the Bronson ER and they started running test. She was admitted as they waited for the results. Within 24 hours it was determined that she had a flesh eating bacteria. The Dr. told us that she only had 3-4 days to live, a week at the most. There was only two options; massive surgery which she would not likely survive with little chance of recovery, or to go home under hospice care. She did not have to think about it at all, she wanted to go home.

One of the main goals of getting home was to finish a goal she had been working on for at least two months. She has made and given baby hats for the new borns at Bronson hospital for several years. She was just 19 hats short of 3,000. She had been cranking hats out as fast as possible over the two previous months for fear that she wasn't going to make that goal. She did come home from the hospital but was not able to anything at all let lone make the last of the hats. Friends and family quickly responded and got busy making baby hats and soon had more than the number needed to make up the 3,000.

It is now interesting to try to figure what she is waiting for before making her grand entry into Heaven. Today is Sept. 11 and she is still holding on. It has been well over a week since she has been able to eat or drink anything. Each day we expect will be her last and then another day comes and goes. We are able to keep enough meds in her to keep her comfortable so she sleeps around the clock. We don't know how many posts we will be making on this site but will keep you informed as time passes.

You can call her many things, but you know she is your friend.