Farewell to a Wonderful Nana

I know it's been a while but life has been insanely busy the past 3 weeks. During the last week in May Nana was admitted into the hospital and we were told she only a few weeks left. I made plans to fly home first week in June with the kids. On Saturday I spoke to my Nana and she said she couldn't hold on much longer and could we come as soon as possible. So with that I rebooked our tickets along with Aarahi to fly the next morning.
We arrived back into Palmerston North around 6pm and I went right up to the hospital. Nana was laying there just looking at the door. As soon as we rounded the corner he face lit and and her eyes swelled with tears as she told me she had been waiting for me all day just watching the door. I was able to spend a few hours that night with her as we talked about all sorts of things. The next day they moved her into the hospice just down the road.
The following few days we spent coming and going visiting her. One night Aarahi spent a few hours singing for her. By the next morning she was no longer responding. She passed away peacefully at 11pm on the 4th of June. Which also happened to be my birthday, sonot a day I am likely to forget.
I felt so blessed to be able to spend those final few days with her. I was especailly thankful to be able to make it over while she was still able to talk and knew I was there. We were able to say good bye to each other with surprisingly few tears. We both knew the time had come, and were ready.
Nana and I have always had such a close relationship, and my heart aches to be able to call her and to send each other packages I know she is in a better place. I was concerned that I wasn't as upset as I expected I would be. Aarahi was quick to remind me that I had probably done a lot of my grieving through the past year since getting her cancer diagnosis. I had already done my ugly crying mkonths before.
I am so thankful for Teina, Georgia and Zirsha who were able to share my kids around so that I didn't need to worry about them and was able to focus on what I needed to do. I am especially thankful for my wonderful husband who knew just what I needed and just did it.
Aarahi went home last Sunday, the kids and I are here until July while we wait for Aunty Arpege's wedding! It will have been a long 5 weeks by the time we make it home again.

Hopefully I can catch up on everything else over the next week. We started cleaning out Nana's house and trust me there are some pretty awesome stories to go with that one, not to mention the photos we uncovered!

Nana and her calf for school

On the Esplanade train...yep that's me with the blonde hair

My graduation in 2010