In Lieu of Flowers

Flowers can be sent to:
Brentwood Baptist Church
7777 Concord Rd
Brentwood, Tn 37027

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to:

Hope House International - Right before her diagnosis, Mom learned about Hope House and was getting ready to start donating but never had the chance.

or

Alive Hospice - In her last few days at home, the kind nurses at Alive Hospice were a great help to all of us.

Mom's Arrangements

Saturday, May 16th

Visitation 9:30 AM - 11:15 AM
Service at 11:30 AM
in the Chapel at Brentwood Baptist Church
7777 Concord Road
Brentwood, TN 37027

Graveside Service at 1:30 PM
Lynnwood Cemetery
Lynnville, TN 38472

Directions to Lynnwood Cemetery:
Starting on I-65 South from Nashville
Take Exit 27 for TN Hwy 129 towards Lynnville/Cornersville, Turn Right
Continue for 7.8 miles, Lynnwood Cemetery is on the Right

At Peace

At about 6:40 this morning, a party started in Heaven. Our sweet mom left this Earth and her body is now whole again. We all headed for bed about 12:30 this morning, and my brothers slept in the family room with her again in hopes of giving our dad some rest. They shifted her at some point to make her more comfortable but said she continued to labor to breathe. While they were sleeping this morning, my dad walked in the room and sat beside her. She opened her eyes, looked at him, and her breathing pattern changed. One of my brothers woke me up and I ran down quickly with them beside her. At that point her breathing pattern changed again and a few moments later she made her grand entrance (and with mom we all know it was grand!) into Heaven undoubtedly running straight for her mom, who she greatly missed. We felt like she waited for the few hours while we were sleeping until she could look one more time at dad and have us all surrounding her. As soon as we have details, I will be sure to get those to everyone. For now we know the service will be held at Brentwood Baptist Church, where she was loved so well, and the graveside service will be in Lynnville where so many others of the Knox family are buried. Thanks to everyone for the love and prayers.

At Home

Yesterday was a full day of working hard to get mom home. Thankfully the doctors and nurses working with her were on top of things and tried to move the process along as quickly as possible. Once she was home in the afternoon, she had a number of people stop by to visit her (thanks to all of you!) to which she opened her eyes and smiled at each of them. Even though most were for only a quick "hello" because she was so tired, she enjoyed each moment with those she got to see. We are extremely grateful for all the sweet messages we have received for our beautiful mom, and although I haven't been able to get back to everyone to let you all know we've receive them, I've read almost all of them to her at this point. Each chance I get between her bouts of sleep, she lays with her eyes closed as I read and smiles at all the funny memories that are shared. We all know how much she loves to laugh! She's well aware of what is going on and seems to fall asleep more soundly when she hears our voices in the room. After reading a large number of messages to her this morning, I got the chance to talk to her and remind her again, as we keep doing, how much we love her, how we will miss her terribly, but that we will all be okay. Most importantly I keep reminding her that we will take great care of dad. My heart melted and at the same time soared with joy as she told me that she is at peace with all of it. We are all here with her, and my brothers and I will continue to spend the night here at the house. Sometimes I'm not sure what to think of life going on without my mom and me with all these boys but what a blessing they are! They are regularly lifting, shifting, and making her comfortable in the bed we have set up for her in the family room. She has yet to have any pain, and we pray it remains that way. With the help of hospice, we will be fully prepared to give her whatever she needs to keep her comfortable here at home until her last breath when she finally gets to go to her real home. None of us can imagine life without her, but we long for her to be where she is free, and as she would says in her silly, spunky voice, "get out of this bed!" I love her with all my heart but am thrilled for her to be where there is no more cancer and her body is healed and whole again. Feel free to continue sending messages and we will get those to her. I know the blog comments are not always working, but I'm checking email regularly and family and friends that do have our contact info have been and will continue forwarding them to me. Thanks so much for helping us surround her with love. She has loved us all so well.

Last Days

This is the blog post I never wanted to have to write and certainly we didn't imagine would come so soon. Prior to now, mom was reading the blog, so I wanted to be sensitive to that in what I said. At this point, however, she is in her last days here with us and has quickly become too weak to read. Her health has rapidly declined in the past week and in particular the past couple of days. She had hoped to be strong enough to get the PD-1 treatment today, but it was clear that her body is really struggling. Upon seeing her today, the doctor decided it was best to keep her at the hospital overnight tonight in order to give her fluids and do whatever necessary to keep her comfortable while hospice care was set up for tomorrow. We aren't sure exactly when she will be released (there was talk of afternoon), but we know her time left here is very short, probably a matter of a couple of days. We are so appreciative of the outpouring of love and know many would like to see her if possible. Feel free to contact any one of us that you have a number for or for those of you that are unable to come by, feel free to send a message by text or email, and we will gladly read it to her. A dear friend of mine sent one today, and she really enjoyed hearing it. Please don't hesitate. I know it's hard to know what to do at this time, and many people are concerned of being a bother. However, we all know how social mom is, and nothing would make her happier than to see or hear words read from the people who love her. She has touched so many lives and cared for so many in what seems now a short number of years here on Earth. Our desire is to surround her with love in the small amount of time she has left.

I need to be brief for many reason which can be explained at another time. Mom's legs improved greatly only to swell again as of yesterday morning. Things continue to be much of the same although she is trying very hard to eat a little during the day. Despite her weakness, she wants to try to get to Vandy Friday for the PD-1 (Keytruda) treatment. Please continue to pray for her.

Prayers

Please pray for mom. She has had a very difficult time since they gave her the sodium among other things at Vandy last Friday when she had to spend the night. She still has lymphedema in her right leg, which is preventing her from moving around much at all, and her left leg continues to swell when she tries to walk. Everything has impacted her voice so it's very hard for her to talk, and she is extremely fatigued and needs to eat but is getting sick to her stomach at times. Her wonderful massage therapist, Denise, kindly came to help her with her lymphedema this week, and there are plans to continue with things to try to help it. Please pray for her to overcome this and do so quickly. She said she wants to take this one thing at a time, so getting past the lymphedema will be the first step. It is critical for her to do so before moving on to the next step.