Mom's Final Road Trip
POSTED August 10, 2010 - 2:49pm | POSTED BY Editor Gina
Submitted by our Association President, Cathie Stevanovich
On Sunday, August 9th, my mother, Sylvia Ann Novak, lost her battle with dementia & Alzheimers.
My mother had fallen last June, so she went from a pretty outspoken, 3 pack a day cigarette smoking strongly independent thinker, to a very tiny birdlike creature who knew she was rapidly losing her mind and didn’t understand why, or how.
Mom’s descent was very sudden and very fast. We were able to enroll her in home hospice in June, and that enabled Mom to relax, and provided the additional support my father George needed as her primary caretaker.
My mom was pretty fierce at times but she was always a great listener. Sylvia loved her cigarettes, and as she grew older it became her main road trip. Mom was able to drive from Schaumburg into Roselle to get her cigarettes and back home ALL done with only right turns. WGN was always on the radio, and she read her newspaper cover to cover daily (sometimes 2 newspapers a day) and knew her politics upside down and backwards.
My Mom’s final road trip is as follows:
1st wake will be in Champaign
Wednesday, August 11
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Owens Funeral Home
101 North Elm Street
Champaign, IL 61820
(217) 352-4231
2nd wake will be in Schaumburg
Friday, August 13
4:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Michaels Funeral Home
800 S. Roselle Road
Schaumburg, IL 60190
(847) 891-2900
Funeral will leave from Michaels Funeral Home
Saturday, August 14
Funeral mass 11:00 AM
St. Hubert’s in Hoffman Estates
Interment will be in St. Michael’s Cemetary in Palatine.
I would like to thank everyone for their support and understanding the last year. I know I missed meetings, didn’t always
return phone calls, and emails went unanswered often for a few days. Between working 6 days a week, the Association, and
Mom I was always going somewhere. Thank you for your patience and shared stories.
Had not Lenore Weiss allowed me to share her illness and hospice experience, I would not have been as fully aware and
“in the present” with each moment I spent with my mom. So thanks again Lenore for showing by example.
One thing about Route 66 – no experience is ever wasted. We learn something new every day on the road.
Cathie Stevanovich
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Traveler wrote on August 10, 2010 - 4:21pm:
I'm very sorry about your loss.
My Mom has Alzheimer's and she has rapidly declined in the past year. Last June she was able to walk and carry on a conversation. Now she is very frail, sits in a wheelchair and mumbles. It's a cruel disease that robs wonderful people of their minds. I was fortunate that I was able to take a Route 66 trip through Illinois with Mom back in 2002. She really enjoyed it. We got to meet Bob Waldmire in Rochester in his bus and she talked about him for a long time. Take Care!