Prologue: In June, we introduced our readers to Brady's grandmother (aka Yaya) through the post, Brady and Yaya: Timeless beauty needs no hair.
Yaya battled cancer. For a time, the prognosis was encouraging, but to everyone's devastation, cancer returned with a vengeance.
In the weeks before and after Yaya's passing, Brady had much to communicate. Following is the second of three blog posts that share his experience. His first of three posts is here.
On October 23, Yaya left us too soon.
Thankfully, our family could be with her hours before her passing. When we arrived at her home, Brady mustered the courage to give Yaya a kiss on her unresponsive forehead as she lay in a hospice bed. He darted out of the room right afterward, and despite our encouragement, he could not bring himself to return to her side (which is understandable).
But he typed to her:
Goodbye Yaya, I love you.
Then out of the blue, perhaps sensing Yaya was approaching her final hour, Brady summoned his courage to sit with her until the end.
On an early Wednesday morning, Yvonne Bachman passed peacefully with her family by her bedside.
For Yaya’s memorial service, her grandchildren wrote about Yaya. This is Brady's contribution, which was read by the church pastor to a filled room:
Yaya's love fills this room with the faces she embraced throughout her joyful existence. She lived to serve others and poured happiness into every room she glowed through. Reason for her premature departure I can't formulate other than she was too pure for this world. Yaya forever in our hearts. Love more than you know. Brady