Through the Years

Friday's Celebration of Life

The location for the Celebration of Connie's Life on Friday has been secured. It will be at Floral Hall in Everett. The address is: 802 E. Mukilteo Blvd., Everett, WA 98203. The hall is located within Forest Park.

Saying Goodbye

Connie Alberta Chose

Connie Chose lost her year long fight with Leukemia on July 7, 2011 surrounded by family and loved ones.

Connie was born on July 7, 1951 in Renton WA, the third of five children of Albert and Laura Hohmann. Connie met Ron Chose in 1968 after being set-up by her older brother. They were married in 1970 and had two sons. Connie was a dedicated employee and worked many jobs, including as a roller-waitress; she then established a 26 year long career with Boeing in Everett, WA as an Expediter.

Mom was the life of the party; she had a magnetic personality and a strong spirit that drew people to her. Her sense of adventure found her and Ron in many distant lands, including Japan, Europe, Thailand, the Caribbean and countless destinations throughout the US. She could tell a story of her adventures that would light up the room and bring a smile to everyone. She was loved by all who knew her and she loved all she knew.

She is survived by her devoted husband, Ron, who has never left her side; son and daughter-in-law, Steven and Jackie, son and daughter-in-law, David and Lisa; grandson, Connor; and her little dog Maggie.

Viewing will be held at Floral Hills, 409 Filbert Road, Lynnwood, WA on Tuesday July 12, 2011 from 4:00 -8:00 p.m.

A private family graveside service will be held at Floral Hills on Wednesday July 13, 2011 at 11:00 a.m. with a viewing at 10:00 a.m.

A Celebration of Connie's life, open to all, will be held at Floral Hall, Forest Park, 802 E Mukilteo Blvd., Everett, WA on Friday July 15, 2011 from 5:00 - 9 p.m. Reservations are pending, so please see www.conniechose.blogspot.com for the latest information.

Thank you to the SCCA and the nurses of the 8th floor, her caring Boeing co-workers; and to all the family and friends who loved, encouraged, and supported Connie as she fought the good fight.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to LLS-Washington/Alaska Chapter, Attn: Light The Night Seattle, Connie's Crew of Hope, 123 NW 36th Street, Suite 100, Seattle, WA 98107; or electronically at http://pages.lightthenight.org/wa/SeattleL11/ConniesCrewofHope.

Sad News

It is with great sadness I let you know that Connie Chose passed away last night, July 7^th at the UWMC.  Connie passed peacefully surrounded by her family.  Yesterday was Connie’s 60^th Birthday – a very special lady to have entered and left this world on the same date.

Connie’s family cannot thank you enough for your kindness, concern and love you have given to Connie and her family this past year.  We all will miss Connie but are so have blessed to have had her in our lives for the time we had.

I will let you know when plans are made for Connie’s “Celebration of Life”.

God Bless you all.

Linda

Connie - July 1st

Connie remains in the hospital and continues to struggle. This past week she had started running fevers, the doctors did a CAT scan and it showed abnormalities in her lungs. THey then did a Bronoscopy and after many tests and cultures they diagnosed Connie with Toxoplasmosis. She was moved into ICU on Wednesday and yesterday they had to put her back on a ventilator. The doctors are working hard to pull her through another complication. Of course this is rare in bone marrow transplant patients so the doctors are consulting with specialists in infectious diseases and doing research. We are back to waiting and taking it "day by day" or "hour by hour" the doctors tell us we should know more in the next 48 hours as to whether the treatment seems to be working. I wish I could pass on better news and hopefully soon I can. Connie is resting comfortably and is mildly sedated so she knows little of what is going on, that goodness for that.

I was hoping we could all have a big celebration as Connie's 60th birthday is on July 7th, but not this year.We will pray she is out of the ICU and on the mend by the then, but little chance she will be out of the hospital.

Thank you for all your kindness and prayers for Connie and her family, again they are going through a very tough time.

I hope you all enjoy your 4th of July weekend.

Linda

Father's Day

Happy Father’s Day to all of you that are fathers – I hope you have a joyous day today with your children.

I wanted to let you all know that Connie is going through another rough patch, she was admitted to the UWMC last Tuesday, June 14^th.  She was having heart problems which the doctors are trying to control with the balance of medications.  She is still inpatient and at this point no one has said anything about a date for her to be released.  She is discouraged and struggling to accept her slow recovery, she knows most transplant patients are released and back home by their 100^th day post-transplant, but here she is still dealing with complications.

Please keep her and her family in your prayers.

Linda (on behalf of Connie & Ron)

Answering Machine vs Voicemail

I guess it has been about a month since I sent out any news on Connie, so I will give you a little update.

Connie is doing ok, she is still very, very weak but she is stable.  About 10 days ago they did a bone marrow biopsy and it showed all ‘donor cells’ and no abnormal cells, that was very good news.  The doctors said her marrow is producing at about 10% and they would like to see it at about 40%.  Which did not sound very good to me but as you age the marrow just normally produces less effectively so 40% is not so bad.  Connie had still been going to the clinic daily but this last sunny weekend she got both Saturday & Sunday off.  That really lifted her spirits.  The doctors have taken her off some medications and are very slowly reducing others.  We are just thinking positively that she will continue on down her road with no complications and can begin to gain some strength back.  She does hate being totally dependent on Ron for everything.

I do need to explain to everyone who has called her, left messages and never got return phone calls.  Connie & Ron have an answering machine and they check it for messages.  Well they did not know that when they bundled their phone, internet & TV they automatically gave you ‘voice mail’.  They figured that out about a week or two ago and when they learned how to check it, they had over 250 messages.  Sorry but you all got erased, trying to listen to all those messages was much too overwhelming for her.  So please don’t have hurt feelings and don’t hesitate to give her a call again.

Connie is still supported with units of blood & platelets but not quite as often.  She has her up days and her down days but she is hopeful that life will someday allow her to have a quality of life when she can be active and spend time with her friends again.

For a long time the doctors told Connie “just take it one day at a time”.  Now they seem to be saying, “don’t think about tomorrow, think about next month”.  I guess they don’t want her to expect ‘too much to fast’.

I hope many of you have signed up for the ‘Light the Night’ walk this year to raise funds for Leukemia.  We have a team called “CONNIES CREW FOR HOPE”.    Connie has every intention of walking with us this year, at least as far as she can, then we will pop her into a wheelchair to finish around the lake.  Here is the link to sign up, I hope to see you there.   http://pages.lightthenight.org/wa/SeattleL11/ConniesCrewofHope

Connie thanks you all for your friendship and love you have shown to her & Ron these past 10 months.

Take care,

Linda