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 relationship that kids these days would say “Goals” to. For as long as I can remember, they could sit at that table all day, watching movies and playing Farkle. From the moment my grandma got home from work, to the moment they went to bed, they were in each other company, never getting tired of one another. I will always remember her taking off all her rings to clean them, she always had at least 2 rings on each finger. Occasionally she would let me look at them and help her clean them. We would talk about how we are and she would give me her advice on things. She was never afraid to give her opinion on anything, and once she made her mind up, she wouldn’t change it for anything, When I first found out my grandma was sick was when she got lost going my aunts funeral, we watched her drive past five times. …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 there Once she was in a good enough state to leave the hospital she was sent to Autumnwood Care Center in Tiffin, Ohio. While she was there I visited her every weekend, I watched her lose weight and her state of mind. She would forget things after only five minutes and would repeatedly ask to leave and go home. She would tell us of “visions” she would have, seeing angels at night in her room. She asked for cigarettes constantly, even though those were what killed her. After she let us know she knew she was dying she would always say things that began with “When I’m gone…”, whenever she said stuff like that I would walk out into the hallways which smelled of Lysol, and walk to the game room. There I would sit and look at the yellow birds they had caged, I would relax, cry, and just listen to the birds sing. The birds took a little bit of stress off me, they caused some relief in my mind and body. I wish she could’ve gotten out of bed to see them, she had always had a thing for birds. She was in Autumnwood for about a month and a half, we