Hi guys.....

Tomorrow 9/18 Vince plays at the Rialto theater in Joliet Illinois. I hope he is doing well as far as recouping and getting around.

My husband and I have second row seats for this concert and I have been looking forward to it for a long time.

I had been fortunate enough to get to see him already during this tour at the Lorain County fair in Ohio and was able to get a meet and greet pass. My mom is also a HUGE Vince fan, and I asked him to sign a birthday card for my mom. He of course did, and I got a picture of him with me and my 7 year old niece (yeah, we both squeezed him, we are cut of the same cloth, as is my mom LOL!).

On 9/11 my mom had a heart attack. She was in a zumba aerobics class and went down. She had CPR, was defibbed, had a cardiac cath and had stents placed. I wish to God that this story had a good ending, but it does not. Yes, we saved her heart, but somewhere along the line she did not get oxygen to her brain. She has severe brain damage and is currently in a condition that is worse than comatose. She is having constant seizures we cannot stop.

Two days ago, maybe the 15th?, my birthday package for her arrived at her door (I live in Chicago, she lives in Florida and I am currently at her house), part of which was the card Vince had signed. I never told her, I wanted it to be a surprise.

I took her the card today and "showed" it to her. It's now hanging on the wall in ICU, along with my other card to her, explaining to her how I got to squeeze Vince (oh believe me she already had heard that part of the story).

Talk about being a day late and a dollar short.

Going to the show is my husband (who is holding down the fort in Illinois for the time being) and my teenage son Jeff. That makes me feel a little bit better....while Jeff is not a country music fan, he is a musician and a guitarist, and to be second row to watch a world class guitarist play should be really cool for him.....I asked him to request "Oklahoma Borderline" and then he could watch Vince's fingers fly up and down the fret board, in only a way Vince can do. That should give Jeff something to shoot for as far as his ability to play.....and I thought it might help Jeff get his mind off of Grandma for a while, if only for a few hours.

We've got a long tough road ahead.

If you have a moment to send a prayer our way to help my mama out, I sure would appreciate it.

Dawn I am so very sorry to learn about your Mom. Just know you have lots of prayers for her and your family from your Vinny friends.

Dawn,

I will keep you and your family in my thoughts and prayers.


Rhonda

Dawn-
I will keep your mom and your family in my prayers!!
Krissie

Dawn
You and your family are in my prayers and thoughts.

Oohhhh, my goodness, that is so very sad. Thoughts and prayers coming your way..

Dawn,
I'm so very sorry to hear about your Mom. You will be in our thoughts and prayers.

Take care of yourself.

Dawn,I'll keep you all in my prayers.

Oh my gosh -- what a horrible, horrible thing you have been going through Dawn. I am so, so sorry!

Hi everyone.....I hadn't written anything more about what happened because my computer is evil, and it took me this long to borrow someone else's.

My mom died Friday October 3rd at 10:45 pm eastern time. In the three weeks that she lived after the heart attack, she never regained consciousness. I hope that during those three weeks she wasn't aware of anything (I don't think she was), and I am certain that now she is not. Now she walks with Jesus in the kingdom of heaven, and she is whole again.

The birthday card that Vince signed remained at her bedside all through the 8 days at the hospital and 2 weeks at the hospice. I put it up with her pictures at her funeral. My Aunt said that my mom had the anticipation that it was coming, and that that was good enough. It just reminds me of all the things she won't get to do.

On the night that Vince played at the Rialto, I left my mom's side late, only after I could not physically stand up anymore. She was still seizing, it had been a week. It was the most horrible thing I have ever seen anybody go through. On the long drive to her house my husband called from the concert. I got to hear Vince sing "Go Rest High on That Mountain." I sang right along with him, full of tears and out of key.

We took mom off of life support the next day. That is what she told us kids to do if she ever ended up like Terri Shaivo. For God's sake, nobody ever thought she would ever really end up that way. I still can't believe it.

Two days later, as mom lay in hospice, I was even more a wreck. I remember wandering a beach, crying inconsolably. I questioned everything we had done, and was in a great struggle in my mind. I had no peace whatsoever. I had been using my mom's car and when I got back into it, I thought maybe some music would help. I tried to put a CD in, but one was already in the player. I ejected it, and it was a Vince Gill CD, the one with "Go Rest High On That Mountain"on it. That was the last CD she had listened to, and she had left it there for me to find, at the exact moment I needed it. When I played that song it was as if a great feeling of relief came over me, like mom was trying to tell me we were doing all the right things.

Everyday for the next week and a half plus, I made the long drive to and from mom's house to the hospice and back. I listened to that song at least once on every trip, still full of tears and still singing out of key. I knew mom had left that there for me. It just became a routine part of every day in what otherwise felt like a war to me, and I am sure felt a lot worse to my mom. It was a way to help me survive.

After mom passed away, I told that story to the minister, and he said that that song must be very important to us. He played it in the middle of the service for mom, and he introduced it by saying we should all listen to the song and just experience what it has to offer.

If you want to hear angels, go listen to that song.

That song will follow us back to Florida for her memorial service there ---mom died in Florida, funeral and burial was in Illinois, memorial service will be in a few weeks back in Florida. Of course I will bring that same CD with and play it for her again there.

Good nite all. God bless.





e

Dawn,
so sorry to hear about your mom, and i understand about seizers
my husband took them before the Lord took him, and i played Vinces song Go rest high, that was my healing song. that song tells it all.
take care and God Bless you.
love ya Shirl 82 in Pa.

A little bit of good news:

my younger sister, who is disabled and who lived with my mom in Florida moved in with me and is adjusting fairly well, considering the circumstances. It will be a long road ahead, but it looks like she will be able to transfer her job from the Florida Walmart to the Illinois Walmart. Yeah! I can't believe we all agreed to let mom's dogs move in with us too....so now we have FIVE dogs....our two Vizslas, a Great Dane and mom's Shitzu and Lassa. My son says we should open a petting zoo. I can say I am never lonely in our house.

After the whole disaster of mom's illness and death, my husband worked extra hard to get me to see Vince again as I did miss the concert. He said he joined Amy's fan club and got presale tickets to the Bloomington Christmas show. Sounds like good seats. That was really nice of him.

Thank you guys for all the prayers and well wishes for our whole family....we are traveling back to Florida in a week or so for the memorial service for mom down there. Of course we'll play Vince's song again....I know mom would want that....

Hey I just read Vince played "Colder Than Winter" at the Joliet Rialto show. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let me do my primal scream now. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He really did that song?

erg.

Okay, nothing is fair. Absolutely nothing is fair.

That is my favorite song. That's the song I was going to request, and I didn't think he'd even play it.

I'd be the first person to say, hey, look at the irony in that. This is not ironic . This stinks.

Did he really play that?

wow.

Dawn my prayers go out to you and your family in this sad time for you.

Mom's memorial service was this past Monday, Nov 3 in Fort Myers Florida at McGregor Baptist Church. It was very moving as my son spoke eloquently about his grandmother, and both my sister and myself talked about her life and how she had impacted us all. At the end we played Vince's song, Go Rest High..., one more time, and it was special there. They played it really loud. I lliked it that way.

Go rest high mom.

Still can't believe that was the last thing she was listening to....

Dawn, I'm just now catching up with things here on the message board. I'm so very sorry to hear about you Mom. What a touching story. I can't help but feel that Vince would love for you to tell him this some day. That song has special meaning to a lot of us here. It's always comforting...

Rest assured you did the right thing. Your Mom would be so pleased...

Thanks Becky...your post came to me at the right time....I am still all torn up inside about our decision and have to keep telling myself it was what mom wanted and it was the right thing to do...that's why Vince's song was so good for me....and your post helped too. God bless.

I wrote all what happened to my Mom and don't feel like you guys ever got to know my Mom.

Mom, like me, was dyslexic. She loved to tell the story of the time when whe was a kid and saw a glass door that had "RUSH" printed on it. So she ran, or "rushed" into the door, just like it said. She smacked right into the glass. What she thought said "RUSH" was really "PUSH" but from the other side.

We are both left handed. In fact we have the same hands, but I didn't recognize that until I was holding her hands so much in hospice.

She gardened, I gardened.

We were driving around one time and listening to Vince, which reminded me of this story, which I told her: I was walking out of a grocery store and some kids drove past with some rap music blasting so loud. That didn't bother me, but the obscene and profane lyrics did. And then I saw a mom and a little girl about 3 or 4 years old walking into the store and I knew the little girl had heard those foul words. I envisioned that girl asking, "Mom, what is a m%&*($#er?. That made me mad. I got into my car and turned on MY music, which happened to be Vince singing "Old Time Fiddle Song"--- which I thought was sweet justice. So I rolled down every window and the sunroof too, and blasted that song as loud as I could just as that group of kids walked by.

You know what Mom said to that? She said, "Oh, that's the one I use too."

The one I use too? I had to ask her to clarify.

Turns out we both have used that specific Vince song as a weapon. LOL.


Yesterday was a very hard day. I feel so bad for my sister. Her world is upside down right now only second to Mom's. We were driving around doing chores like going to lawyers and buying things so she can comfortably move into our house, and during that time we had Vince's CD "The Next Big Thing" playing. On the way home the song "In These Last Few Days" came on. It just hit me. I started thinking about Mom dying in hospice, just like the character in that song, and tears just started rolling down my face. I looked at my sister---it was the same thing for her: tears rolling down her face too. I just felt so bad. She was staring straight ahead and said "That line got to me, "Lay here down beside me", he knows he's dying....I am having a bad cry moment..." I told her to just look at me. She turned and looked....she saw how I was all covered with tears too and she cracked a huge smile. We both laughed at everything: the tragedy of it all, how at the same moment we were both all covered in tears from listening to Vince's song, and from understanding how lucky we are to have each other.

Thanks guys for being there in Mom's time of crisis, thanks for reading and being supportive. And I still wish I hadn't missed "Colder Than Winter"! Dag nab it.

My Mom was a real good lady. May she rest in peace.

Dawn - you and your sister keep that closeness, and know that WE are here for you. It's rough, I know - but just keep talking~~it helps!

Hi, I'm new to board and wanted to tell you Dawn how your story about your Mom touched my heart.I know how hard it is to let a loved one go.My sister only lasted 4 days from the time she found out she had cancer.I didn't even get to say goodbye.I hope she could hear me talking to her.It was terrible.I miss her so much.Vince also helped me to get through her passing.I just wanted to let you know I'm thinking about you. Love Crystal

Sorry to hear about your sister, Crystal. My grandmother lasted a little more than a week from the time she was diagnosed with cancer to when we lost her. In our case, though, the whole family that was able to be there, was, so we got the chance to say goodbye, but no matter what, it's still hard to lose someone you love that way and that quickly.

The Rialto theater....I started this thread nearly six months ago when my Mom was in a coma after suffering a heart attack and I was with her on the night I had tickets for Vince at the Rialto theater in Joliet IL. That was way back in September. That seems likes years ago while at the the same time it feels like just yesterday.

My husband took me to see Vince and Amy at Christmastime, and that was very nice. And last week I actually made it to the Rialto theater for the very first time in my life and saw Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt do an acoustic set there. I did think a lot about Mom at that show, thought about how things were for me and Mom (in ICU) the night Vince played there....while I sat in the balcony I sort of relived everything again.....at least I managed to not break down in tears during the show.....neither Lyle's nor John's songs lend themselves much to breaking down in tears, so that was a little bit helpful in keeping me from losing it completely.

It was a nice gift when I saw Vince in December sing the song "Heaven"---a song that is written from the perspective of a person who is ill, when faced with a bad prospect, saying, "What are they going to do? Threaten me with Heaven?” Yes, it made me think of my Mom and yes, I was sitting there bawling. And yes, it was painful, opening up all of those memories....but that is the sort of thing that happens on the pathway of grieving and healing.

I know Vince has another round of concerts coming up....I am reading about all of you guys who are getting great seats and are all excited about going....I know those will be great shows. As for me, I've got to take a little break, a little breather. It is time to sit back, relax and try to let my heart mend. I won't be traveling to any of those upcoming shows, so I am counting on you guys to write good reviews and tell me how all the shows are....what songs he played, what jokes he tells, and especially what heart-felt touching stories he says. I know I am going to be missing a lot, and I am counting on you guys to fill in the missing pieces for me.

Mom and I, we had plans. The next time Vince was going to play near her house, I was gonna get the tickets for her me and my sis, and Mom was going to buy my plane ticket ..and the three of us were gonna go together to see him play. We talked about what a great day it would be...we'd go to the beach, and then go out somewhere nice to eat and then we'd end the day with Vince serenading the three of us (yeah, us and a few thousand other people)....those were our plans. I had assumed that that was going to happen during this year or next. Now I know that it is never going to happen. The Vince show that I eventually will end up going to without my Mom is going to be a tough one. It will not be like going to see Lyle: Vince's songs cut right to the core. I guess when I am prepared to get over the hump and finally do go to one of his shows in the future, I had better take a whole backpack (sigh) stuffed with kleenex.