Masma Roadtrip: To Tahoe

Everything happened so quickly. Just over a week ago, while spending the morning at home with a fever-laden baby, I received a call from my mother. She informed me that my paternal grandmother, known to us as Masma, was not doing well and was only expected to live another 24 hours at the most. That was a week ago Tuesday.

Looking at the big picture, this shouldn't have come with much surprise. Masma was 92, and she had lived a life that was full and memorable. She was moved from a facility near her home in the San Francisco Bay Area to a very comfortable place in Provo, Utah six months ago. Reasons for the move were two-fold: she had a large concentration of grandchildren in the area, and the cost of living was considerably lower.

We enjoyed having her more accessible in Utah, and I would like to think that she enjoyed the attention she received from the extended generations of posterity that came to visit her.

By Tuesday night I was driving south to Utah county to meet with my mom and sister Julia, who were sitting with a mostly unconscious Masma. We sat and reminisced late into the evening before my dad arrived from the airport at about 11pm.

I ended up sitting next to my dad, at Masma's bedside for the rest of the night. Dad and I talked quietly at times, but mostly sat in silent thought. We noticed her breaths grow increasingly farther apart, and at 2am I watched the life drain from her face as she passed peacefully into the next life.

Now, a week later, I find myself sitting in a motel in Truckee, California. My dad and I departed from my sister Jenna's place in Taylorsville this morning and picked up my brother Brent at the Reno Airport this afternoon. Our journey across Nevada was highlighted by an audio book by T. Boone Pickens and the occasional Cat equipment sighting. We met up with my dad's brothers Bill and Pete and connected with Bill's son Nate, who lives in Truckee, just before he left for work at the Drunken Monkey.

Dad, Brent, Bill, Pete, and I drove down to Lake Tahoe from Truckee and explored the area surrounding the lake before skipping rocks off of its banks. We finished the night by enjoying some decadent sushi rolls at the Drunken Monkey with Nate as our server.