Rainy Thursday....

Lots of storms last night, which left us with heavy rains this morning. Pouring so badly that I cancelled my piano lesson, which had been cancelled on Wednesday also. Which was fine with me, because I really wasn't ready for this week's lesson. I'm still not ready.... guess I just wasn't in the piano mood this week.

I spent the last two days making soups........ clam chowder, crawfish bisque, lentil. I also baked some apples and cranberries. Our nice warm and sunny weather turned into rainy days, so that means soup in this house. And now that my husband knows I can really make good soup, I guess he won't be looking for cans of Chunky Clam Chowder anymore. Oh well..... the secret is out.

Frankie's daughter-in-law called me this afternoon.... they still haven't made any decision about "arrangements" for Frankie. She wanted to know my opinion. I really didn't want to give my opinion, but she kept asking. She specifically wanted to know if I thought Frankie would want a wake and a viewing.

Not the Frankie I knew. I can just hear Frankie now, responding to someone looking at her in a coffin who has just whispered "Doesn't she look wonderful?"

Frankie's response would be "I don't look wonderful..... I look dead!" I told her daughter-in-law that I really didn't think Frankie would want that. Frankie believed in cremation, and she wanted her ashes sprinkled somewhere along Galveston Bay. And that we know for a fact, because Frankie mentioned that quite a few times.

Frankie's two (grown) children are now fighting with one another... both want to be in charge. According to Texas law, if no will is found, then the oldest child is legally in charge, which puts Frankie's son in that position. Her daughter told me that her brother wants to sue the hospital...... saying that Frankie caught an infection in the hospital and that's what killed her.

Frankie's daughter is a nurse....... who believes that Frankie died because her lungs collapsed because of all those years of smoking... she couldn't breathe on her own, she couldn't eat on her own, then she caught pneumonia. A simple (and very common) staph infection was the least of her mother's worries.

When Frankie's daughter-in-law realized that I wasn't buying into her "let's sue the hospital" theory, she quickly ended the phone call with me this afternoon. I don't want to get involved in all of this. Her children will have to work this out. All I know is this: Frankie's body is "on ice" (as her son is calling it) and will stay there for seven days until he either agrees to have her body cremated or he finds a lawyer to take on this case and they'll do an autopsy.

We had very, very bad storms last night. Lots of thunder and lightning. Torrents of rain and flash-flooding. As my friend A said: "Frankie is really ticked off about all of this." The one thing that Frankie couldn't tolerate was being cold.

And now her son is keeping her "on ice."

How very, very sad.