Monday, February 28, 2005
Death Dates
I talked to MCS today. Great conversation, in which I also remembered to ask her for the death dates for all Mom's immediate family (prior to starting her own family). I'm posting them here (without names but with relative identification and, if I'm aware of them, a few details) as reference for me and anyone else in our family who might be interested:
Both Mom's siblings' deaths were precipitated by long, long term, advanced alcoholism that, in her brother's case, continued up to the night of his death. Her sister's alcoholism was arrested by a variety of physical problems which manifested a couple of years before her death including: Severe digestive problems which culminated in a colostomy; dementia that was first (and probably most accurately) diagnosed as a result of long term malnutrition due to alcoholism, then diagnosed as Alzheimer's.
None of the diagnoses of Alzheimer's were confirmed with autopsies. My experience with my relatives' dementia and what little research I've done on the subject leads me to consider that my grandmother may very well have suffered from the peculiar type of dementia called Alzheimer's and that my aunt's dementia was not Alzheimer's.
- Mom's Dad: 3/19/1980
- 95 at death (9 months shy of 96th birthday on 11/3)
- died at Scottsdale Memorial Hospital, Scottsdale, AZ, of "natural causes" due to "old age" (not per death certificate; per relatives)
- Mom's Mom: 5/24/1987
- 93 at death (two weeks shy of 94th birthday on 6/7)
- died in nursing home, Mesa, AZ, of complications of Alzheimer's disease (not per death certificate; per relatives)
- Mom's Husband: 2/18/1985
- 68 at death
- died at Phoenix Veteran's Hospital, Phoenix, AZ of burst abdominal aneurysm
- Mom's Brother: 6/13/1977
- 62 at death
- died at Mesa General Hospital, Mesa, AZ of heart failure
- Mom's sister: 6/14/1998
- 72 at death
- died in nursing home in Scottsdale, AZ, of heart failure
- Mom's brother-in-law: 12/6/1999
- 74 at death
- died at home in Scottsdale, AZ, of heart failure
- Mom's maternal grandfather: 1/21/47
- 85 at death
- not sure of what he died (also, unsure of whether he died in 1946 or 1947; I'm using the latter date on a hunch)
- Mom's maternal uncle: some time between 1987 and 1990
- somewhere between 85 and 89 at death
- unsure where he died
Both Mom's siblings' deaths were precipitated by long, long term, advanced alcoholism that, in her brother's case, continued up to the night of his death. Her sister's alcoholism was arrested by a variety of physical problems which manifested a couple of years before her death including: Severe digestive problems which culminated in a colostomy; dementia that was first (and probably most accurately) diagnosed as a result of long term malnutrition due to alcoholism, then diagnosed as Alzheimer's.
None of the diagnoses of Alzheimer's were confirmed with autopsies. My experience with my relatives' dementia and what little research I've done on the subject leads me to consider that my grandmother may very well have suffered from the peculiar type of dementia called Alzheimer's and that my aunt's dementia was not Alzheimer's.
