R.I.P. Jerry Sheldon (Dad)

ok, so it's been a while since I have blogged, and it's because we have been really busy. My dad passed away on October 24th at 11pm. This is my story;
On Friday late afternoon I got a call from my dad, and once again of course I was rolling my eyes. More drama, more crying from him and it was just another day of trying to calm him down and tell him that everyone would be ok and that I was there for him. I got him calmed down and promised that I would see him in the morning so that we could clean his apartment so we could start looking for a new one on the first floor. Something that would make it a little easier for him to get around. I left a little early on Friday from work because I was upset, my aunt at told him something that made me really upset. She told him that I thought he was a burden, and I NEVER have said that to anyone. that's why he was so upset and crying. More drama...

Reluctantly Devin and I got up on Saturday morning, packed up all the cleaning supplies and put them in the car and drove down to his Apt. We got there, walked up stairs, knocked on the door, nothing, called his cell and we could hear it ringing, nothing, we were there for about 15 minutes of doing this and then decied we were pissed that we wasted a saturday morning getting up and going down there. We were going to try again later that night. So about 6pm we went back down there with the intent of yelling at him because we had a date. Again, no answer (he would always answer his door, maybe not his cell, but always the door). We went down stairs and tried to knock on the Managers door. He's never there so we talked with the assistant manager, he said there was no key to let us into the apt. The manager was the only on with a key and he didn't want to drive all the way down there just so we could check on someone. We were Pissed. We Thought, what were we going to do now? Well we left it alone that night and tried not to think about it and decided that we were going to knock the door down on Sunday morning.

We got up, and did a few things, and went down there at 12:30. Knocked and knocked again, and no answer, talked to a few neighbors and they said that hadn't heard or seen him since Friday night. So Devin had brought his screw drivers so we could try to unscrew the door knob, and no go. He tried to shove the door open with his shoulder, but then if we broke the door, we would have to replace it. So I called his brothers to see if they had a key and they didn't, so I asked my uncle gary what to do. He suggested call 911 and they could get the door open. So we did and about 30 minutes later officer Burger came out. He talked with all the neighbors and tried to get a phone number for the manager to bring a key, all the numbers that everyone had for him were wrong, so the last thing to do was to kick that door in.The Sergeant got there right on time to walk up there stairs and witness it.
IT took a few tries for him to get the door open, but the officer broke the deadbolt off and got it open. They asked up to stay outside while they "cleared" the place. They came back out and said, "Well he is here in the back, but unfortunately he is no longer with us". WOW, didn't expect that, I was actually just going to yell at him for not answering the door and his phone. Once they took there pictures for evidence, they said that we could go in and look if we wanted. Well me being so gung-ho and a visual person I had to see. So we walked into the Apartment and into his bedroom and right there on the bathroom floor was my dad tightly curled in the fetal position. Looking just like a little baby entering into this world. His hands and neck and ears and face were all purple and he looked so peaceful laying there. I just kept thinking that he was going to start breathing and that everything was going to be fine.
We went and sat outside so the officer could take more photos and go through everything just incase there was something there that dad was hiding. The Medical Examiners came by and did there thing, and tried to gather as much info as they could. They said that he looked like he was in no pain when he died and that it looks like he just laid down and fell asleep. They put the time of death at 11-pm on Friday night, so even if we got the door open on Saturday morning, we couldn't have done anything. At this time, they are thinking that it is not Self inflected, and it was natural. I'm pissed, we were just at the hospital the weekend before and they found nothing. Dad and I had talked about his death and memorial service and what he wanted done with his body plenty of times just in case something did happen. I didn't sleep much the fisrt night, all the dreams I had involved his apartment and seeing him like that. I will probably be a wreck for a little while, but just stick with me and I will get through it. I knew that I would have to be the one that would take care of all the financials now since Dad's number 1 fan here has been stuck with this the whole time, taking care of him, running him around..... I'm pretty sure nothing will change with that, but Dean was here to help. We found a cremating home, got that done in time for his memorial that was on Saturday!
We also had till last Friday to get his APT cleaned out since he's only paid up through October. That was a task all in it's self. That man had so many clothes. He worked at Brittania for 18 some years, and got his clothes fron there for almost free.
So the cause of death was a major heart attack that killed him instantly. There was nothing that we could have done to help him even if we were there.
On Sunday, we got to go up to the mountains to a location that was very close to where Grandpa Sheldon's ashes were spread. Grandma's ashes hadn't been done yet so she came up with us too. We went up to Snoqualmie where the river is, and about 2 miles up from Snoqualmie Falls is the place that we picked to spread them. We had all the brothers and sisters that were still left join us along with some of Dad's cousins. First Uncle Pat took Grandma out and did hers and then Dean, Lizzy and I went out. We took our shoes off rolled up our pants and started wading into the river. I was first out and I slipped and caught myslef just as my bum and sleve got wet. Dean started laughing at me, and sure enough not but 2 seconds later he slipped and soaked his pants all the way up to his bum. He even dropped Dad's Urn into the water, luckily it was sealed tightly and it didn't get wet inside. We all stood there and poured it out together and also took turns doing it. I must say that was the BEST feeling I got all week. It was such a hard week planning and moving and taking care of everything, along with dealing with family. It was a great ending to a hard week. After that, we had a family dinner and a slideshow of all the pictures taken over the weekend. So please, keep him in yours prayers that he will walk again with the angels and that he is ok!