Service of Gratitude for Dad and Other Body Donors UC Davis Medical School

Followers of the Blog know that on Thanksgiving Day last year, my 91 year old father passed away.  He and mom many years ago told us kids that they had signed papers to donate their bodies to UC Davis Medical School to assist in the teaching of new doctors.  When they moved to the Kansas City area in 1992, they changed the donation to a Kansas City area Medical School...then back to UC Davis when they moved back to the Sacramento area.  We did not know until his death that UC Davis holds an annual Service of Gratitude for the donors.  We have been hanging around here in the HOT, SMOKY Northern California Central Valley for this program.  About six weeks ago we learned that due to COVID, the service would be virtual...so it could be watched anywhere you have an Internet connection.  But we also knew that viewing this with family, especially with mom, was the best way to watch it, so we stuck out the smoke and heat and remained parked in Sandy and Arny's backyard.

The service was held on Facebook Live.  It lasted just over an hour, and we watched it in the comfort of Arny and Sandy's house, with my computer hooked up to their large flat screen TV.  Mom, Euleda (Arny's mom who is 97 years old), Arny, Sandy, Patti, Marcia and I watched the service, along with Bubba, Parker (Patti's dog) and little Indy who learned to sit still for about 10 minutes of it.  We did not have any program information, although now that it is over we could ask for a program.  This young man (above) was the MC for the event.  He is one of the students in the school, and he did a great job.  And YES, with COVID and with it being a medical school, they ALL wore masks except for the bugler who played TAPS.  The first few minutes of the broadcast included pictures of some of the donors, including dad's picture at the top of this post.

In recognition of the Veterans who were donors, and they said that there were many of them, they have a small color guard to present the flag.  They presented one flag to one of the students who is a Veteran who accepted it on behalf of all the families of Veterans.  Each family can ask for a flag of their own, and I think mom will be calling them up asking for one.  The Military Honors was a very moving part of the ceremony.

A few students of the school gave short talks about the importance of the Body Donor program, the impact that it has had on them, and the final speaker (last picture above) was the head of the Gross Anatomy Department.  (Note: Gross anatomy, also called topographical anatomy, is the study of anatomy at the macroscopic level. The term gross distinguishes it from other areas of anatomical study, including histology, which is the microscopic study of anatomy typically with a microscope.)  The last item on the program was the reading of the first names, alphabetically, of the donors.  WOW, who would have known that they had so many donors...somewhere between 150-160 people!  

Overall the program was very enjoyable, although it would have been better in person.  There were a few times the live service stalled for a few seconds.  When the final speaker spoke, it stalled and when it restarted about 10 seconds later, it skipped about a minute of his talk.  The good thing, the service is on Facebook and can be seen anytime by anyone who wants to.  A link to the UC Davis body donor program can be found here, along with a link to the Facebook post of the program.

Earlier in the week I met my oldest son Michael (who lives in Sacramento) and daughter Stephanie (who lives in Salt Lake City) over at mom's place.  Mom lives in an Assisted Living Facility, and cannot have visitors inside the facility.  Luckily for us, she has a outside apartment with a balcony, and we can sit/stand along the small roadway that circles the facility, and she can easily see us while safely up on her balcony.  My sisters do her laundry for her, and that gets handed down to us, and either returned over the rail or given to staff at the front desk.  Due to COVID, I had not seen Michael since we arrived, and Stephanie came for a visit to her brother and sister-in-law's house a little over a week ago. 

We are grateful that the Assisted Living Facility allowed her out for this special occasion today, although now she is suppose to quarantine in her apartment until her test for COVID comes back.  

After the service we had a lunch of BBQ Tri-Tip steak, Mashed Cauliflower, Corn on the Cob, Marshmallow Salad, and Deviled Eggs.  The good thing, we had LOTS of leftovers, so when Marcia and I head out on Wednesday, we will have plenty of travel food to go along with us.  We will be taking a northern route to Florida, and will take a month or so to get there.  More on that trip as I start publishing on a regular basis again once our travels start.

 

A Double Celebration

Dad's Celebration of Life turned out real nice.  It was held in this chapel, where many of his friends had their 'Celebrations' held before him.  We did not get an official count, but our best guess is that there were 70 people there, perhaps a few more, perhaps a few less.  A cousin came down from Yreka (270 miles), mom's older and only living sister and her husband came up from the Modesto area, cousin Donald officiated driving over from Salinas with his wife, and of course Bishop Kevin Romer flew out from the Independence Missouri area.  All of my brothers and sisters and their spouses (those who have spouses) were there, except for my wife Marcia who caught my terrible cold, which I caught from Sandy, whom caught it from Dad.  (I was sick, sick, sick from Monday through Thursday, although doing much better by Thursday night.)  Nearly all of my cousins from Dad's brother's family were there along with their mother.  Dad has one surviving cousin from his mom's side, and he and his wife were there.  There was even a couple who dad married many years ago...he a Christian, she a Jew, and dad married them at her parents house...it had been a LONG TIME since I had seen them.  So family, friends, church friends whom I had not seen since my cousin's funeral a few years ago...we all enjoyed reminiscing about dad.  Dad did not want a service, but said it was ok if 'everyone felt they needed it'...and for those who are left standing in this world, yes, we needed it.  And yes...tears flowed, but mostly tears of joy and appreciation for the love, the understanding, the compassion, the wisdom that dad shared.  Funny stories were told, good memories were shared, and it only lasted one hour.  

Born on April Fools Day....died on Thanksgiving the day before his only brother's birthday....service held on Friday the 13th...how fitting.  And what did we do the next day???

 

We all have a huge Burdick Christmas Party!  In all truth though, this is an annual party that Aunt Florence's side of the Burdick family throws each year.  Last year they invited Santa to it, and this year here is our side of the family (except for my brother Bob who catered the event and went home before the pictures since he got there before 7 to start cooking.)

Here is many of the other Burdick family.  Not all of them were able to attend, which is unfortunate.  But it was nice seeing those who were able to come.  (And YES, Santa and his wife are part of this part of the family!)

It was a very good, strongly emotional, stuffed with love, full of joy, with lots of reminiscing and plenty of "Hello" and "Goodbye" hugs type of weekend. 

 

 

Many, many years ago, perhaps 30 years ago, mom and dad announced that they were leaving their bodies to 'science' after they died.  When they moved to Missouri, they made plans with a University in the Kansas City area.  When they moved back, they made plans with the University of California, Davis Body Donation Program again.  Well, when dad passed, we gave a card to the nurse...she called them, they took his body down to the hospital morgue, and UC Davis came and got his body.  Monday they called mom and informed us that the body was indeed accepted, and what was going to happen with it over the next month to a year.  They also said that each year they have a memorial service for the the family members of those who have donated, and that once the body had met all of its useful medical needs, it is cremated and buried at sea off the coast near San Francisco.  They said that in a few days they would call us to let us know where we could pick up death certificates, probably in Placer County.  On Thursday they called and told mom we could pick up the certificates up in Auburn, so I picked mom up and within an hour we had 6 certified death certificates (at a cost of $21 each).  IF you might be interested in a program like this, please visit the UC Davis Body Donation Program website so you can get informed about this important program.  I am certain that there is a medical school near you which could use this type of donation.  If you click on the memorial image above, you can read this inscription on the grave marker:

IN HONOR OF THOSE WHO HAVE GIVEN THEIR BODIES TO THE UC DAVIS BODY DONATION PROGRAM FOR THE BENEFIT OF HUMANKIND THROUGH THE ADVANCEMENT OF MEDICINE AND SCIENCE.  

Mortui Vivos Docent  "The Dead Teach the Living"

 

As for Marcia and I...we are going to rest up from sickness, and pull out of my Sister's backyard on Wednesday and try to get back to Florida before the first of the year...we are not going to make Christmas, but I figure somewhere around the 28th is probably doable.  Back in January or February as we talked about our travel plans for 2019, I told Marcia that since we were going to miss dad and mom's birthdays in April due to Ryan's graduation, and that there was no way we could make it California before June next year due to Ryan and Kaelyn's wedding in Ohio, that we should plan on spending 4-5 months in Citrus Heights so that we could spend time with mom and dad.  Little did we know that this time was so important.  Dad's hospitalization in May followed by 20 days of Rehab in June, his even longer hospitalization in September followed by another 20 days of Rehab in October, and special needs for about 10 days once he got back home to the Assisted Living facility.  I spent hours every day at either the hospital or the rehab, was there to assist with just about every PT and most OT sessions, tried to keep everyone in the family abreast to the situation since most are still working, and those who don't live far away.  My sisters Patti and Sandy attended to much of mom and dad's needs....driving them to Doctor appointments, getting groceries, paying bills, handle issues with care facilities, VA, Doctors and things like that, all the while working full-time jobs...so being here and being able to step in like I did was a great blessing to them both, and to mom and dad.  That is one aspect that other RVers have found during their travels...and we were happy to be able to step in and do what needed to be done.