My aunt Jan died yesterday morning after a difficult struggle with cancer.  Only a few short months ago she was told she must have surgery if she was to survive, but that surgery found the cancer to be inoperable and she was given only months to live.  Her struggle was made more difficult by her husband Charlie’s ongoing and losing fight with Alzheimer’s.  He was unable to care for himself when Jan got the news about her own situation; you can understand why her battle was all the more difficult knowing she could no longer care for him and he was certainly unable to assist her with the difficult journey she was forced to undertake.

The following is from Mom:

My oldest sister Jan died this morning before dawn of ovarian cancer. Her husband Charlie is in ICU where he is heavily sedated. He has Alzheimer’s and his overall health is not good. If allowed to waken he becomes violent and uncontrollable. He is unaware of Jan’s passing.

I don’t know any information as to funeral arrangements so I can’t fill you in there. You have to understand Jan was more of a mother to me when I was little than my real mother was, so I’ll really miss her.

This is from my aunt Cathy via Mom:

Cathy said once Jan heard [Charlie] was hospitalized she relaxed and died. She was Charlie’s care taker until she could no longer handle the task.

The doctors do not expect Charlie to survive much longer.  His condition has deteriorated significantly in recent weeks and continues to worsen.