news about my Mom

My mother, Susanne Starnes, died yesterday, Friday, May 28 at 4:20 PM, at 'Hospice by the Sea' in Boca Raton Fl. She will be cremated at Bass funeral home in Okeechobee, date unknown as of now. She died from end stage COPD, cancer of the lungs and renal failure. Mom was 79, had been a smoker until just a few years ago, and had been ill at home a long time with the COPD and unmanaged diabetes, with Dad cooking and caring for her. I was impressed by the hospice staff and feel that she died peacefully and pain free. I think she knew that my Dad and my brother Kevin and I were there as she moved her badly swollen arms a few times when we spoke to her. She had been on a respirator for almost three months. I hope that her lifelong hurting, and often hurtful, soul has at last found some peace. They were married for 57 years.

I am very thankful to my friend Lee Sherman, a noted rosarian in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for her priceless sharings and gems of advice about the hospice process, which empowered me with real world facts as I dealt with hospitals and hospices on Dad's behalf. Lee lost her colorful husband Joel on New Year's Day this year after 47 years of marriage. He had been very ill for a decade, and she too selflessly cared for him all those years.

If you'd like to send my Dad a card here is his address:

John Starnes Sr.
10009 N.E. 16th Street
Okeechobee FL 34974

John