Grandma Rosemary O'Brien

It is with great sadness that I write that my Grandma Rosemary O'Brien has passed away. It was really quiet sudden. Even though she was 84, she was very active and seemingly healthy. In fact she had traveled here to the DFW area twice recently. Once in October to visit us and then again in December for our family Christmas Party. She had suffered most recently from bronchitis. She was hospitalized from complications with bronchitis and then slipped into a coma. During the coma, they discovered that she had sever liver issues, they had probably gone undetected for some time. She was moved to hospice and passed away only 3 hours after arriving. It is just another reminder to me how fragile life is.
I have beaten up on myself a lot over the past few weeks because I have been so bad about blogging. She was truly my blogs BIGGEST fan. She replied to every single post. I saved all of her emails. I read through all her responses the other day in tears. The very next blog post I was going to do was of her visit in October. We had a great visit and went to the Dallas Arboretum to see the pumpkins. I am sad she never got to see the pictures of our time together...



Grandma and Me 1 year ago when we were there in Las Cruces visiting her.

She loved my boys so much, Michael included. I loved seeing them together. Michael took great care of her and she loved it. In fact, she loved her whole family so much. Having a large family was not wasted on her, it suited her well. She had a great relationship with each of her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. She didn't forget a Birthday or Anniversary. She would always send a card and even a small gift. Lately she had sent my boys a Gift Card to Barnes and Noble on their Birthday. I loved that. She was always thinking of all of us. And now she will be greatly missed by all of us.  


Here is the link of her obituary. My aunts did an amazing job eulogizing her.
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/elpasotimes/obituary.aspx?n=rosemary-obrien&pid=170042763&

The funeral was last week, Michael, the boys and I drove to Las Cruces for the service. I was incredibly hard to say good-bye to her and her home. But I was reminded once more how lucky I am to be in this family. I love all my cousins (and their spouses), my aunts and uncles. As we move on from here, I know that we will remain close.  

The O'Brien Cousins. (Minus Sean O'Brien, who could not attend because his wife was expecting their first child at the same time). I love them all!