Through the Tears~ Always Butch’s Sis Annette Remembers July 18, 1979 I am not a superstitious person but Friday, July 13, 1979, was my birthday. Friday the 13th. As the day passed without incident, I thought, OK, good… Ive had a good day! Then, July 14th Dr. Delcher called my Mom and said Butch was in the hospital and would need someone to leave California for Hawaii to care for him for a month or so. Most everyone in our family was working fulltime or had small children, leaving me the only one able to leave my husband and daughter to take care of Butch on Oahu. It was no small feat attempting to make a months worth of arrangements when you dont know what youll need, but for my brother no mountain was to high for me to climb. After getting affairs settled for my husband, Luke and daughter, Sheryl, I set to leave for Hawaii on Tuesday the 17th. The day before that, Dr. Delcher had called Mom and said Butch would need a transfusion. Mom was very concerned and told to the doctor to be very careful because Butch had the relatively rare blood type of A-positive. The doctor assured my mother theyd carefully match the blood and the transfusion would be compatible so they went forward with the transfusion. Immediately after the transfusion on the evening of July 16, Dr. Delcher phoned my Mom saying Butch had spiked a deadly fever of 107 degrees and family needed to get on the next flight out there. We will never know if it was the result of a botched transfusion that caused Butch’s deadly fever, but in my heart I know God knew Butch was tired; it had been a week of fighting hard for his life. My Mom and I booked the first flight out on the 17th and my sister and her family did the same. My sister’s in-laws lived on Oahu, so they were set for transportation, and my Mom and I took a taxi directly to Wahiawa General Hospital, where we were met by a crowd of Butch’s friends. My sister and her husband arrived shortly after us and brought some missionaries with them and then left after awhile. Butch’s friends had been so respectful of our time with Butch and waited downstairs until we came out of the hospital. Now, it was just Mom and I in the room with my brother, and he was so hot and moist to the touch. We both knew we only had a short time with him and my heart began to break into a million pieces. Mom and I stayed close to Butch trying to cool him for a few hours. Then, Dr. Delcher came to explain to Mom that the fever had damaged Butch’s brain she needed to make the horrific choice of either allowing the doctor to perform surgery on Butch -- the way he was -- to scrape his liver, with the best outcome of Butch living in a half way house for the rest of his life, or letting Butch go. What a brave and selfless Mom she was to make that difficult choice to let her son go! It had been a long tiring flight from Los Angeles to Hawaii and the next few hours with Butch were very emotionally draining too. Mom decided to go to the lounge and rest for a few minutes but I stayed with Butch. Shortly after 1 A.M. on July 18th, I leaned over and kissed Butch on the forehead, told him I loved him and that I was going to check on Mom and would be right back. That was when Butch gave me “butterfly kisses” on my cheek with those long eye lashes and I left the room to check on my Mom. It seemed like the nurse followed me to the lounge and said Butch had passed away; it was 1:15 AM. I knew he had told me good bye with those long eyelashes of his. The last thing I remember was walking through the crowd of Butch’s friends in the parking lot but from that point on I can’t remember how we got to one of Butch’s friends house to stay for the rest of that night. Later in the day of the 18th, Fred Hemmings and a couple of other guys (sorry, I do not know their names) came to the house where we were staying and said they would be happy to arrange the paddle out for Butch and all we needed to do was choose the minister for the memorial and make the arrangements through Oahu Crematory and Borthwick Mortuary in Honolulu. I will also be posting the events of the 19th and 20th to share with you my heartfelt recollection of how the paddle out came to be, so beautiful so Aloha. ❤
Posted on: Fri, 18 Jul 2014 19:35:22 +0000
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