I realize that there are friends of Pauline who did not realize her physical condition and may be interested in information leading to her death so I send you this abbreviated account of her last month of life.

Pauline was in Apache Junction, Arizona, for the winter and in April she looked forward to "going home". Since she was taking oxygen twenty-four hours a day it was difficult to bring her by plane. Bob Deem, her son-in-law, volunteered to bring his motor home out to Apache Junction to transport her to Massillon. He arrived in Apache Junction from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (a trip of twenty-two hundred miles) during the last week of April and we left with Pauline on Saturday, May 2^nd. Bette stayed in South Carolina to run their business while Bob made the trip so our "party" for the trip home consisted of Bob, Pauline and me.

Before leaving Apache Junction Pauline was somewhat weaker than she had been during much of the winter. Bette and Bob had stayed with her much of the winter before they were required to return to Myrtle Beach to get their business operation ready for summer. During the last three weeks in Apache Junction Pauline had her friend, Edna Huppert, to assist her, Edna staying on twenty-four hour duty to assist her. On April 21^st I arrived in Apache Junction to relieve Edna and I was with Pauline until she was returned home to Massillon.

During the night of April 30^th Pauline, who was still moving about rather unsteadily, was returning to bed about 3:00 A. M. She usually did arise about this time each night and was very careful in walking to and from her bed. However, on this particular night we had left a suitcase beneath the window in the bedroom near where she returned to take her place in the bed. She had sufficient room but on this occasion she wanted to look out the window and in doing so she forgot that the suitcase was there and she tripped over it. As a result she had bad cuts on both her legs and had to be taken immediately to the emergency room in Valley Lutheran Hospital where her wounds were properly bandaged. To an ordinary person this would not have been of much consequence, but I feel that, to her, it did contribute to her death.

On Saturday, two days after her fall, we started for Massillon with instructions to have her legs and the bandages thereon, checked upon our return to Massillon. She was anxious to get home and she asked Bob, after he had gone about seven hundred fifty miles with about fifteen hundred to go, whether he would get home that night. She was a little confused and Bob was very kind and understanding. Also, constant use of oxygen had affected her eyesight and she couldn’t see good enough to read, write or even operate the telephone. But she was anxious to get home and she continued to question Bob about our time of arrival in Massillon. She did sit up at the table in the motor home to eat her lunch and dinner each day. Most of each day on the trip she either slept in the bed which was always available to her, or she curled up on the lounge. Occasionally she would sit up in the easy chair.

We arrived home on Tuesday evening, May 5^th. Since we left Arizona at 3:00 P. M. Arizona time (that was 6:00 P. M. Massillon time) we were actually in route three days – 6:00 P. M. Saturday to 6:00 P. M. Tuesday, and the distance being about twenty-two hundred miles we had to make very good mileage each day to get her home without delay. I might add that Bob, in Massillon, was about seven hundred miles from home in Myrtle Beach so he traveled about fifty one hundred miles to bring his mother-in-law home and he did it gladly.

Ruth Suntheimer, a member of Perry Christian Church, was on hand each day in our Massillon home to assist Pauline and I was the nurse from about 6:00 P. M. to 8:00 A. M. On Thursday night (two days after arrival home) at about 11:00 P. M. I became alarmed at Pauline’s condition. She seemed to be losing her strength and I had difficulty in getting her to stand or sit up. I called an ambulance and had her taken to Timken-Mercy where we learned that the high carbon dioxide level in her blood was causing her difficulty. As I understand it, it was somewhat like asphyxiation. When the oxygen level gets low and the carbon dioxide gets high in the blood, at some point death occurs. The hospital staff went to work on her under the direction of Dr. James Kelling and she was there from Thursday, May 7^th until about May 14^th. Her exact date of departure I have not marked but she was in the hospital about one week.

Upon her return from the hospital she stayed home for about one week but around the 21^st of May I called Dr. Kelling, described her condition and was told to return her to the hospital. So the ambulance was called a second time to transport her back to Timken-Mercy. Frankly, she did not respond to their treatment this last time and on Friday, May 29^th, Bette suggested we call for Ben to come home from Arizona. Bette was with her mother but had to make an emergency trip to Myrtle Beach. So we called Ben on Friday and he arrived in Massillon by plane on Saturday.

Bette had just arrived back in South Carolina and we called her to tell her she should get back as soon as she could. Both Bette and Ben arrived on Saturday, May 31^st, one at Akron-Canton and the other at Cleveland Hopkins. Bette immediately went to Timken-Mercy and stayed during the night with Pauline. I stayed on Sunday morning until about 12:00 noon when Ben arrived and stayed with his mother. From Saturday night until the time of Pauline’s death around 12:10 A. M. on Tuesday, someone was with Pauline at all times.

I neglected to tell you that Pauline had a spell, like a convulsive spell, about noon on Saturday and that disturbed us. Gloria Seese, whom we consider our foster daughter, was with her at the time and got help for her immediately or I believe she would have died at that time, but she rallied some that afternoon (Saturday). In fact, I told her I was going to Akron-Canton to pick up Ben and left her with the usual hospital care and she was pleased because she wanted Ben. Later that night we did the same thing while Ben and I both went to Cleveland Hopkins for Bette only to find that we really didn’t have to go as Gloria and Ralph, her husband, also arrived on the scene to take Bette to Timken-Mercy. Bette went with Ben to Timken-Mercy and, as I said above, stayed with her mother the balance of that night. Gloria and Ralph took me home for some rest. Gloria had some conversation with Pauline for some time before she suffered her seizure and she has condensed her conversation in the note we received. A copy is attached.

The Doctor, Dr. James Kelling, an expert on pulmonary diseases, had told us after her Saturday attack that it was "touch and go" during the next few days, that she might or might not live the weekend but even if she did recover her time was extremely limited. He indicated that she could survive, if all went well, not more than six months.

She was somewhat confused during the last few days, but she understood that both Bette and Ben were there and they were very good (better than I) in attending to her. I feel that this made her content and to feel secure. She had her "babies" taking care of her and I can say that their services were excellent – all that anybody could desire. She had cared for them for long periods when they were little, now they were on the spot seeing that she had everything she wanted when she needed help. She also knew that we had installed a hospital bed at home in the front room, a lift to the second floor if she were able to ride a lift, that we had twenty-four hour help waiting to care for her and Ben, in particular, reminded her to take her medical treatments so she could go home. Also the girls at Timken-Mercy were super, two of them had rather intimate connections with our family. One was a grandchild of Mary DeHoff and the other was a daughter of a former elder of Perry Christian Church. All the other girls at Timken-Mercy were wonderful to Pauline. She had loving care. She liked her doctor, and she was struggling to go home once more.

But the oxygen mask on her face, the catheter, the restraints to her arms (although Ben took them off at times and watched her that she did not attempt to remove the IV’s, catheter, etc.) were too much for her seventy-seven years and on 12:10 A. M. on June 2^nd, at the midnight hour, she quietly passed away. Bette was with her and called for the help available, but that help was unavailing.

It seemed that the Lord smiled on her in her passing. Ben had just finished his last day in school and was free to come when he was called. Both he and Bette were on hand to look after her in her last struggle. Since her grandchildren had to come from Arizona, Wyoming, California and Washington State the funeral was delayed until Friday, June 5^th. I even noticed that she died at the midnight hour when all patients in the hospital were asleep and it seemed that even her roommate was not disturbed. The weather from June 2^nd to June 5^th was very good, in fact it was excellent. Harold Davis, minister at Emmanuel Christian Church, arranged the funeral service and had Bob Walther, minister at Perry Christian Church take part. Leora Demeter, Pauline’s niece, provided thirty minutes of pre-service music, at Bette’s special request Bob Walther sang "Open the Gates of the Temple", John Demeter sang one of Pauline’s favorites, "How Great Thou Art" and Gloria whom we always claim to be a member of our family, sang an arrangement of the Twenty-third Psalm entitled, "He Restoreth My Soul". Pauline’s old friend, Sherriell Storey, who knew her best, came up from Lexington, Kentucky, to have a moving eulogy for her. The services were held at Perry Christian Church because Pauline always considered Perry "her church" since she was not able to attend our new church which, we call, New Covenant Christian Church, with any regularity.

Even though we have four grave spaces in the lovely cemetery, Sunset Hills, and about nine spaces in Massillon Cemetery, we purchased three spaces in Augusta Cemetery because we felt that she should go "home". Her final resting place is in view of the Presbyterian Church she attended as a child, and in view of Augusta Christian Church I attended as a child, so the family felt that this is the place she belonged – down where most of her relatives live.

She went back home "in style" as the funeral procession consisting of twenty-six cars was led all the way by Motorcycle Policeman Shaffer who did an outstanding job of getting the procession through Canton, East Canton, Robertsville, Minerva and finally to Augusta (I don’t believe Augusta ever saw a motorcycle policeman before). Thus she went to her final resting place on a lovely sunshiny day.

After the service dinner was served in the dining room of the Augusta Christian Church and it was served by members of the Presbyterian Church because that is the church of Pauline’s brothers and sisters, with an assist by ladies of the Augusta Christian Church and the blessing was given by Fred Long, the minister of Augusta Christian Church. We owe a great debt to New Covenant Christian Church, Emmanuel Christian Church, Perry Christian Church, Stillfork Presbyterian Church and Augusta Christian Church for the loving service they rendered.

Obviously there is a great loss to me because I was her exclusive companion for nearly fifty-five years and I have known her for many years (I really don’t know exactly how many) before that time. My life is changed. I have memories, wonderful memories, but I am selfish enough so that I must fight the tears even though I know she is much better off in her Father’s care than she is in mine.

I neglected to tell you that on June 1, 1987, at about 9:00 to 10:00 P. M., just a short time before Pauline passed away, she received a telephone call in her hospital room from old friends, Wilbur, Maxine and Sonny Gartrell, from Uplands, California. Ben placed the receiver to Pauline’s ear and she listened to voices she loved. Although she could not respond t these good friends I am of the opinion this call was of great comfort to Pauline as she moved toward that final minute of her life. Our friends have been so good it is almost unbelievable.

I hope I have not bored you with this recital and if I have, forgive me. It is good for me to tell the story of her last month of life, not only that you should know about it, but also that I relieve myself of some of the tensions that inevitably come to one who has loved, then lost a loving companion.

Your friend in Christ Jesus,