Iris Vandevander: The Person Who Changed My Life

Iris Vandevander, who was fading fast in front of her entire family, responded to a question from her husband about their anniversary cake. She said, “Honey, we both know I’m not going to be here for our anniversary.” When this quote was said she left a huge indent on everyone there, in her nursing home room. Nobody told her she was dying, and yet she knew. Not even a month after this quote, she passed very quickly and calmly during the night, when no family was there to see her go. My grandma, even being a closed-minded, stubborn person, helped me because a more independent and strong person during her decrease of life. Iris was a very relaxed woman, she spent the last ten years of her life working in the gardening section of Wal-Mart. She would come home to my grandpa and they would sit at their dining room table watching T.V. and talking. In the summer my grandpa would work on the garden and my grandma would sit on the back porch admiring the humming birds on the feeders. In the winter she would sit at the table, watching Si-Fi movies all day with my grandpa. They had the type of …show more content…
Eventually we flagged her down and she didn’t even remember where she was going, she said that she felt as if she was driving without a destination. Her exact words were “I wanted to go home, but I didn’t know where home was.” Not long after this we took her to the doctor, they gave her some pills and sent her home. But as time passed, she got worse, her organs were failing and her body was retaining water. Eventually they put her in Ruffing Nursing Home, right across from where her and my grandfather lived. I never really got a chance to visit her while she was there, which I do regret greatly. One night her heart started beating at an accelerated rate so an ambulance was called, she was in the hospital for about a month. Her heath quickly went down from