Last Thursday, one of our friends, Alexa Simmons, died. I’m only able to blog about it now, after the numbness has worn off and I’m not crying uncontrollably.
She had hydrocephalus (caused by EDS and Chiari ) and was in the ICU (one step below air-lock). She’d been in there for a while with infections (including bacterial meningitis) in her CSF and an external drain instead of her shunt (they couldn’t replace her shunt until the infections were gone). The last update we got from her on Facebook was 15 hours before she died, and they were going to maybe replace her shunt. She had been updating Facebook almost daily.
She was very ill, but relatively stable. We didn’t see this coming. The advantage of the Internet was that we could give her cootie-free cuddles. I was particularly shaken by her death because I also have hydrocephalus.
Her close friend (Kerrilynn) blogged about it here, much more eloquently than I can: http://gimpyzebra.wordpress.com/2011/10/09/alexa-you-will-be-missed/
My husband and I are sitting shiva, which involves doughnuts. Death necessitates doughnuts. They don’t make you feel better, but they do help some.
Her family will be having a memorial on 29 October.
This is Alexa. And this is Alexa’s memorial doughnut.
If anyone would care to leave a comment, I’d love to know what Alexa’s favourite colours were, please let me know. I’ll knit something and name it after her.
