Judy was admitted to Lexington Medical Center on Sunday afternoon, April 16, 2023. She was feeling extremely well on Easter Sunday, one week earlier, but as the week progressed she got to the point where I had to carry her into the bathroom and over to the bed. It was like her meds and brain stimulators were not working. We thought she had an intestinal blockage causing her Parkinson's meds not to work on Saturday so we had gone to the urgent care. Xray showed no problem. Then Saturday night, she had a 103 degree temp and Sunday morning she had a deep chest cough. We went to church, but she wasn't feeling well at all. So we went to the ER around 2pm. Part of our delay was that she had her 'once every 3 months' appointment with her Parkinson's doc in Augusta GA on Monday morning and we had hoped to wait till after that.

Judy's diagnosis was "esophageal dysmotility" (swallowing muscles not working...) along with aspiration pneumonia (food in her lungs) and a urinary tract infection that had spread to her kidneys. After hearing the results of her "swallow test" and being advised that she would need a feeding tube (peg tube in the stomach) Judy made it clear to the doctor and me that she was done fighting and ready to welcome death. She told the doctor to stop all treatment and put her in "la la land" with pain meds. Dr Saint-Jour looked at me as he said "Are you sure?"  Judy said very firmly, "Don't look at him, look at me!" So the pain medication started that afternoon, Thursday April 20. I asked the nurse "How long will it take?" and she said about a week, based on her experience. Two days later, at 11pm while Judy's daughter in law and our son, Matt, were reading the bible from the book of Psalms, Judy passed away peacefully. We were all there - our son Ryan, our niece Elizabeth, and I. My first thoughts were that her body was finally at peace with no more pain and suffering.

It has been hard starting a new life. I try to keep a full "ToDo List" and have traveled quite a bit. But like our favorite lyric from the Seekers song says:
"There is always someone
For each of us, they say
And you'll be my someone
Forever and a day
I could search the whole world over
Until my life is through
But I know I'll never find another you"

Thank you all for keeping in touch with Judy over the years and for your support in the last few months.
Dave