Bill's Blog

The big news this week was Thursday’s snowstorm. We awoke to a winter wonderland after several weeks without snow. As I write this on Sunday morning, it is still coming down. It has been snowing intermittently for the past four days. We measured the snow level in our yard yesterday and it was 9 inches (23 centimeters). We considered school delays or cancellations Thursday and Friday, but the main roads in Belgrade were open. It is a wet snow and the roads are clear. Many of the secondary roads however, are not and it has given some people difficulty in getting around. The city did a pretty good job of clearing the roads. In my hometown of Caspian, Michigan, a place that gets a lot of snow, we have a rule that no cars can be parked out on the street at night. It makes it easy for the snow ploughs to clear the roads. That is not so here, hence the snow on the secondary roads.

We love the snow and took the kids to the tobogganing hill yesterday. We made a few runs, but Nadia and Ocean do not do very well in the snow. I also took the car to the shop to have the snow tires put on. The snow gives the city a whole new look and it is really beautiful.

I want to write about the my trip home to Michigan last week and reflect on the passing of my mother. This is more for posterity sake.

It began with a phone call to my mother two weeks ago. She was a patient at the big, regional hospital in Marquette, Michigan. My dad took my mom to her usual hair appointment on Friday. He then went to help out at the church and when he returned, my mother could not get up from bed. He called 911 and eventually she was transferred from the Iron County Hospital to Marquette. She was there for several days. I talked to her on the phone once and she sounded okay, complaining of pain in her back and legs. My father said there was not much the doctors could do for her and they were looking at transferring her to a nursing home in Iron River. He said the situation was grave so I immediately made plans to fly to Michigan.

My mother was a diabetic for over 20 years. Diabetes runs in her family as many members have it. She received a kidney transplant from her brother over 10 years ago. Diabetes in the long term harms the body’s circulation, eyesight, and other vital organs. Mom was an active person and never smoke or drank. It was sad to see the debiliatating effects of the disease on her.

She kept asking my Dad what day it was and when the boys were going to come home. I live in Serbia and my brother Andy, (on the far left in the photo above) lives in Ecuador. I arrived in my hometown of Caspian, Michigan last Friday evening. On Saturday morning, we got a call from the nursing home where my mom was staying. She told the nurse that she wanted to see us before she passed away.

I went up there with my daughter Ocean. My mom recognized me and called my name. She asked for her glasses so she could see her only granddaughter. Ocean sat on the bed next to her. During the day, we stayed in her room and Dad and I helped her stay comfortable. She asked us to move her because her back, shoulders, and legs were sore. Andy arrived in the afternoon and the nurses moved her to a private room.

Her three sons, husband, and sister were with her when she passed. I held her hand and hugged her in her final moments. We all said goodbye and told her that we loved her. I promised to take care of the her grandchildren and especially to teach Ocean to be a good basketball player. My mother died around 5:00 PM Saturday.

The next few days were sad. It was good that my two brothers, Dad, and I were together to get the funeral organized. We went to the funeral home together to help write her obituary and plan the funeral. We made a large bulletin board of photos as a memory to her.

My mother suffered greatly her final couple of years. There were many trips to doctors and hospital stays. My father spent much time helping her out.

The funeral was really nice. Most of our relatives on her side of the family came as well as people from our small town of Caspian. On the way out of the church, the choir played the West Iron County High School fight song, a fitting tribute to a sporting woman who gave so much to school’s basketball program.

Nadia, Ocean, and I had to fly back the next day. We left Owen and Oliver back in Belgrade. The emails, letters, and words of sympathy from our family and friends, both here in Belgrade and the USA was overwhelming and greatly appreciated. She had a full life and passed away knowing that she had a postive impact on the lives of so many people. We will miss her.

It was also my first time in Michigan in February for many years. It was very cold (-27 C on the day we left) with heaps of snow.

It was a special West Iron County High School girls’ basketball game tonight. My father, Charles is pictured above with my brother Andy and daughter Ocean. He is the public address announcer for the school’s football, basketball, and track n’ field games. Tonight, the Wykons (West Iron County High School nickname) were taking on Kingsford High School and my Dad was at his usual post as the announcer.

There was a moment of silence before the game for my mother. Yvonne Kralovec started the girls’ basketball program at the school. The first team debuted in 1974. My mother coached girls’ basketball for a total of 42 years. She mostly worked with the younger students, ranging from grades 4 – 10. In her later years, she was the official scorekeeper for the games. It was nice to see her niece, Kim Heikkila, scoring tonight’s game. It was also a warm touch that all of the Wykon players when they were announced came over and shook my Dad’s hand. My mom coached all of the girls on the team at one time. I think it was also appropriate that her grand daughter, Ocean was at the game. She wanted to keep running out on the floor. Many of our friends came up to us to offer their condolences.

Owen is pictured above in his kinder classroom. I stopped by after my administration meeting to take a peak on the boys and how they were doing. Ollie was still sleeping from his nap time. Owen was in the midst of an art class. He was enjoying himself.

It was another busy week. I have a bit of a cold and earlier in the week, Ocean kept getting up many times during the night. She mercifully slept most of the night both last night and Thursday evening. She kept getting up screaming and the only thing that would get her back to sleep was more milk. Who knows what it was. We tried feeding her more before bedtime, but that really didn’t help.

The temperature got into the mid 50’s this week and all of the snow melted. The melting snow and light rain, combined to make things quite muddy. The forecast looks like it will stay warm until the middle of next week, when temps will finally go down close to the freezing mark.

I also sent this photo to Nadia yesterday. We visited the Ethnographic Museum last weekend and I spotted this photo. The museum in downtown Belgrade has some wonderful displays of costumes and artifacts of life in Serbia in the 1600’s to the early 1900’s. I teased Nadia with the photo below. The woman has collected is carrying back a load of firewood, has a pot of water on her head, knitting clothing, AND watching the child all at the same time. I wonder who took the photo and if it was staged? Anyway, we have come a long way since then with modern conveniences and technology that does away with three of the activities that she is doing. Where is her husband? Sitting on a bench in the village with his buddies? Hunting? Behind a plow? I think that spirit of the woman handling everything in the home and the man just worrying about his work is now gone.