An Unexpected Trip...

May 17, 2012

Late Tuesday evening we received a call from David’s brother, Andrew, telling us that Grandma Firth had come out of surgery and the prognosis was not good.  We decided that we wanted to go as a family and so the search for flights began.   The only flights we could get back to England from Perugia were leaving Thursday morning, landing at Stansted, a 3 hour drive from Leeds.

So, now it is Thursday and we are flying back to England.  Never thought we would see Perugia from the air.  It looks rather flat compared to how steep and hilly it really is.

  

We flew over the Alps, which were gorgeous…

When we landed in Stansted, we rented a car and began our drive up to Leeds.  All of the rapeseed were in bloom, so the scenery was stunning…

  

You can see the scale of things by looking at the bus…

The kids are very worried about their Grandma, and really want to see her…

 We drove straight to the hospital and went right in to see Grandma Firth.  We were very blessed to be able to spend time with Grandma Firth and let her know how we feel about her.  We were all able to say our goodbyes…

This is the view from her room at St. James Hospital…

We sent the kids back to Andrew and Julie’s house with their cousin Leoni while we stayed at the hospital. 

Joyce passed peacefully in the loving arms of her husband, David's dad, Peter in the early hours of Friday morning.  David, Andrew (David's brother), Hilary (David's step-sister) and Vivienne (David's other step-sister) were there too. 

~Mary