Grandma died ten years ago today and I still remember the day as if it were yesterday. She died at 11:05 AM and I, having stayed up all night sitting with her in the hospital, had taken a short nap and woke up as people began to stir around me.
…I was up all night and spent most of the night by her side. She refused to close her eyes. Gail managed to convince the doctors to get Grandma a morphine drip and some Adavan to calm her down.
Jonathan came by the hospital and stayed until about 3 AM. Uncle Bob got there at about 1:30 AM. It was about the last time Grandma was conscious. When she heard his voice, she said, “Bob!” and smiled.
I sat with Grandma all night. Mom and Grandpa went home at about 3:30 AM and came back at about 9:30 AM. I took some medicine and laid down on the other bed to rest. At 11 AM, I woke up when I heard Mom saying she was getting the nurse because it looked like Grandma was not breathing. That was it. The nurse had to have a doctor confirm it….
In this perspective, it is incredible how quickly a decade passes, in the virtual blink of an eyes. The following day, in the Rockland Journal News was her obituary:
Fawn E. Friedlander, a Spring Valley resident, died Monday, April 21, 1997 at Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern. She was 75. Mrs. Friedlander was born January 17, 1922 in Spring City, Utah, to Carl and Hensena Jensen Christensen. She married Paul Friedlander on March 4, 1943, in Salem, Ore. A Spring Valley resident since 1969, she previously lived in the Bronx. Mrs. Friedlander was a former food service worker with the East Ramapo School District. She is survived by her husband; three sons, Robert of Glendale, Calif., Richard of Pacific Palisades, Calif., and David of Pine Bush, N.Y.; a daughter, Bernice Rubin, of Northridge, Calif.; three brothers, Ray, Farrel and Larry Christensen, all of Salt Lake City; a sister, Ada Howe of Salt Lake City; nine grandchildren; and a great-grandchild. The funeral will be held at 10 a.m. tomorrow at Hellman Memorial Chapels, 15 State St., Spring Valley. Burial follows in Spring City Cemetery in Utah.
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