From Zeroasterisk

Wife of Jack Pennington and mother to Sue Looney, Cathy Pennington, and Patricia Corres. Born March 19, 1921 in Poplar Bluff, MO,and died on July 19, 2006 in Houston, TX.

Margaret is also known as "Penny" and has been since shortly after her marriage to Jack on __date?__. Before she was married, she lived in ____, being raised by _____. She graduated, valedictorian, from ____ school in _____.

... more information to be written:

• birth of kids (including timing around the war and absence of Jack)
• favorite places she lived (NO, NY,& London)
• interests (nature & gardening & cooking & astronomy & sewing & anything)
• trips (cull from daughter's memories)
• working as girl scout leader and with Jack, at Pennington & Green in downtown Houston.

Alzheimer's started to set in around 1991 and though she dropped several hints (and prominently left a thick book about Alzheimer's) to the family... nobody thought it possible. "How could such a brilliant woman fall victim to this disease?" Little by little, telltale signs began to appear, such as not being able to follow the directions on a sewing pattern, and later, not being able to remember how to even thread the machine. Kitchen appliances began to look confusing, and one by one, more duties fell to Jack. At the second family reunion, she knew most everybody, but was a little confused and needed some "steering." By the third family reunion, at Sue's, everyone was aware of her confusion and stress. She was not a happy camper, and didn't understand, especially with all the hub bub. These were hard times, especially for Jack, who became her caretaker, rather than her partner. He cooked, cleaned, washed dishes, got her bathed and dressed (not without some argument on her part) and early on managed to go to the YMCA where they both worked out (until she cried in the parking lot and he just gave up and took her home). He had her picked up two or three times a week to go to Sheltering Arms, a center for the elderly. They took her and brought her back till she couldn't get in and out of the van by herself. By that time she had gained about 20 pounds from Jack's good cooking. She couldn't come to family reunions anymore and Christmas vacations became Houston-only affairs.

Jack really stepped up to the plate here and impressed everyone by taking such good care of her and everything around the house. He did a great job until she started wandering and then there were several scary days. One time she just left at the grocery store and couldn't be found. After looking for almost an hour, Jack went home to see if she was there, and drove up and down possible streets on the way home. No Penny. He had just left the house again to drive back to the store and in the rear view mirror, he saw a taxi turn onto their street. Some instinct told him to turn around and sure enough the cab stopped at his house and Penny was in it. She walked up to the cab and couldn't communicate the problem or where she lived or even who she was... The cab driver found her address on a prescription bottle she had with her and just decided to drive her there as "...he would want someone to if it were his mother".

As you might expect, in not too much time, Jack wasn't able to sufficiently watch her all the time and so after a bunch of research the family found a fantastic place to house her. The Padilla family (in Houston) house up to 3 patients in their home. They have someone on staff 24 hours a day, and take fantastic care of their patients... in fact, the people who stay there stop being patients and become family quickly. Penny never had a bed sore, after being bed ridden for over 6 years, she was clean and fed and sung to.

Those last years were, perhaps, the most painful for her family. She had been non-verbal for a while, but she could communicate a lot through her eyes and general expression. That was really what kept the family going, the hope of a smile or a look of recognition. Those moments of clarity started becoming more rare and the family took notice. At some point in early 2006 she didn't seem right one morning and was taken to the hospital for a UTI and some other minor problems. The trip to the hospital proved to be too much of a shock for someone used to loving care and she regressed significantly, to the point where she wouldn't eat. Jack disallowed a doctor from prescribing a feeding tube and she was sent back to the Padilla's where she again started eating... but was still significantly worse for wear.

Late on the night of July 18th, the Padilla's informed the family that she looked blue and that they should show up soon. The Padilla's said that they thought she was holding on to see Jack again. The family arrived early the next morning and after a few hours, almost at noon on July 19, 2006 she passed away. She had been married to Jack for 64 years.

The whole family had been saying goodbye to small pieces of Penny for almost a decade, but the death was still a new finality to deal with. A "Celebration of Life" service was held on July 29th, with many friends and all of the close family in attendance in Houston. Many of the friends were from the time in Gentilly Woods and from London. The reception afterwards was the second large group celebration that their Burgoyne home had hosted this year, the first being Jack's 85th birthday celebration.

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