An email from Uncle Gene about Sylvia, Jeremy’s grandmother:

Mom died this evening at 10:36 pm. She was at Foxdale where she was

getting very attentive and loving care –and good drugs– to ensure

that she was comfortable and without pain. I had driven up last Wednesday

night when the staff thought she would “be going within hours” and I spent

Thursday with her. (That was the third time I’d gone up to see her for

a last time. But, as always, she held on until she was ready.) She hasn’t

been verbal for a while and lately, had become non-responsive as well;

I started speaking to her by phone with a nurse holding the phone to her

ear. The nurse called this evening to say that it was probably very soon now.

So, I called to tell her that Bob and I loved her and that everyone was

sending her their love and I wished her good night. The nurse told me

later that she (nurse) said essentially the same thing to Mom after

hanging up the phone; Mom looked up at her, as if to acknowledge what

she’d said (?), and stopped breathing shortly thereafter.

Jeremy went to work today, a break from the week of vacation. I am still cleaning out the house at 274 Town View Drive. I don’t know when it will be done. We had lunch at Neko, a Japanese place that has a branch in New Paltz. Jeremy brought a co-worker of his, Helen. She has an 18 month old son who was in Conneticut for the week. Then Vince, Edda and I went to the pet store and looked at all the pets. I thought about gettting a betta fish, but then thought I’d better not. Went to the Children’s Museum where Edda got kissed on the lips twice by the cutest boy named Caleb.

Today we are all sick except for Vince of course. The little guy is just running around like crazy and Jeremy, Edda and I are all congested. We went to Bard to pick up Katherine and Bob’s passport information from Eileen. They are both in Sri Lanka where the people are dealing with the aftermath of the tsunami.

On Dec 26, 2004, at 7:32 AM, Jeremy Martin wrote:

All,

As you may have seen in the paper this morning, there was a tsunami

affecting Sri Lanka at 8PM Eastern Standard time on Christmas day. My parents called

early this morning to let us know they are safe and

fine, nothing happened to them. They have a very

quick witted driver who got them into the mountains

far from the coast. There are not a lot of phones

working, but they wanted everyone to know they are

fine. They had been having a wonderful time prior to

this, and now they are just worried about all the people who are in bad shape.

This is pretty much all I know, but in any case you

can feel free to call me at (845) 790-5321 or (845)

489-8303.

Regards,

Jeremy