Chapter 36
WE BOTH RETIRE:
This time it was not too
difficult to settle back into our home; we were gone only three months. I
started working for Abram S. Horst, Inc.; going by carryall bus, first to an
apartment complex in Hershey for a year and half and then to Middletown for
another year and a half.
I retired on January 1st,
1973. I was then sixty-three years and four months old.
After Retirement in 1973
Ronald, having, finished his
term of twenty-six months of V. S., came home in September of 1971 and lived
with us again. On October 21st, 1972 he married Carolyn Weaver. Betsy had, a
few months earlier on June 17th, 1972 (Watergate Day), married James Mcelhenny
of Indiana.
During the period of time
covered by this chapter, we had five more grandchildren being born; Lisa (John and Sandy) on November 28th,
1970; Rachel (Donna and David) on July 13th, 1971; Matthew on November 29th,
1974; Jennifer on December 14th, 1977 and Andrew on July 20th, 1979; the last
three being children of Ron and Carolyn. Grandma never got to see Andy!
The last five years of our
life together were the most trying and traumatic of our forty-seven and one
half years of marriage. Ada became terminally ill. In mid-January of 1974 the
doctor examined a lesion on Ada's neck; he seemed unconcerned. Later that year
she developed more such lesions and again saw the doctor. He ordered a biopsy
of the first lesion, which was done on October 18th, 1974. Four days later we
got the report. It was malignant; a cancer that had metastasized from a breast
cancer.
From that day on, my aim in
life became signally single: diverted from a round of fun into a tangent
designed to keep Ada as comfortable and happy as I possibly could.
After many days of tests as
an outpatient at Lancaster General Hospital between the 23rd and the 30th of
October, she underwent minor surgery on November 6th at the Ephrata Community Hospital.
A pea-sized lump was removed from the left breast.
Ada Preparing Christmas Dinner
December 28, 1975
From then on she had oral
chemotherapy, starting November 15th. On
March 5th, 1976 she began having IV chemotherapy in conjunction with the oral.
The side effects of the chemotherapy were never very severe.
We had three fairly good and
normal years until December I8th, 1977. She spent one day in the hospital after
severe abdominal pains. A few shots of Demerol gave her relief. Some weeks
later she again needed shots and I began to administer them.
From then on, she needed
shots of Demerol for pain; at first,
weeks apart and then every few days, to every day and at last, as high as six
shots a day. I injected her about four hundred and twenty-four times in a year
and a half.
Ada was very brave, patient
and cheerful all through her illness. The first days of July 1979, while Donna
and Rachel, and Betsy were home to see her, were very difficult. (A few weeks
earlier Arvilla and Red were home.)
August 9, 1977
It was evident on Monday
Morning when Donna and Rachel and Betsy left for Indiana, that the end was
near. After a very bad night, at about 9;00 AM, July 3rd, 1979, she quietly and
peacefully passed on while I held her hand.
All our children and
grandchildren attended a private funeral service on Friday morning the sixth of
July followed by burial in the Metzler Mennonite Cemetery. After a lunch for
the family at the Ephrata Mennonite Church Fellowship Center, a public Memorial
Service was held in the church building.
Many beautiful tributes to
Ada were given. Rhoda Lind said that in their Ladies Bible Study Group, they
referred to her as, (There being another Ada Weaver in the group)
"LAUGHING ADA."