Just wanted to stop in and tell everyone Happy New Year!!! I'm sure that 2008 will bring blessings upon us all.
God Bless,
James, Shavonne, and Brock Allen Gowens

Happy New Year everybody!
Love,
Blair

Hey family. It was really good to see everyone. I'm really sorry under the circumstances that we are all there. I enjoyed all the fellowship, the laughs, and the tears.

Maw, we love you very much and we are all here. I know the coming days are going to be really trying for you, but we are all here. I know all the gang will pipe in too on the blog.

Everybody check out the pics on the ctown page.

I love you all very much.
Blair

Good morning everyone,
We are sorry to hear of JW's passing yesterday. Know that you are all in our hearts and prayers.

Love,
Tressie & Mark

Hey bro, I couldn't agree with you more about JW and Maw. I talked to Maw and Kittie today. He is still pretty much in and out. Still in lots of pain but not very coherent. We are all sending our love here in Ft. Worth. Love you very very much.
Blair and Jay

Hey Fam.........I just received the phone call from dad about JW...........We all have a special place in our hearts for JW and the man that he is. He will be missed when that hour comes. I feel 100% sure that we do not need to worry about JW and where he is at! He needs to go see Jesus! His pain is too much and no one needs to experience that. We need to love Maw and pray for her because she is his supporter and surviving half. Maw we love you and hate to see how your past week has turned out, but being the great Christian woman that you are you will get through this.........We love you and always have you on our hearts, even if we cant be there with you in person. Jared and Betsy

Love you very much!

Anybody there???? It's almost Christmas. Blair

Good Morning CT.

Hope this finds everyone as good as can be.

Maw, it was good to hear from you. I know this was a very hard time for you and hope your pain is lightened by all the memories you have of Donna Beth. It is hard sometimes to know just what our siblings mean to us until we have to face loosing them, but after all she was your sister and sisters do have a special bond. You can fight with them, but by golly everyone else better leave them alone!!!!

Hope JW gets the pain relief he needs to be comfortable. I know it is so hard to sit and watch someone hurt so much and there is abosolutely nothing that you can do to help. But I know just being there and the love and care from you is the most he could every wish for.

Glad to see Gary, Susan and Peggy had a safe trip. I know it was hard to not see Donna Beth where she should be. We will all miss her and keep her dear family in our prayers.

Our guys have all been under the weather and missed work. Jared, Me, April, Toby, Caden have all had the head cold stuff and are doing much better now.

I visited my stomach doctor Friday and had a good report and he also chewed me out at the same time. MORE EXCERCISE!!!! I finally joined Blairs gym and guess I will start today.

Keep me in your prayers! I will need it, as I have not worked out now in about two weeks, since the cold weather came in and since I started my new job. OH well, he can be tough and I guess that is just what I need.

Hope you all have a good and safe Holidays.

Love to all of you and MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS. Eletia

Hey Family
Early morning and I am on my way back to the hospital. This has been such a terribly hard week for us. My heart is so broken about about Donna Beth. Being 1 year apart in age, we went thru so many things together in our young life. I still can't believe she is gone.....it is so hard to realize. Kittie came to the hospital at 10:00 the morning of her service and sat with me for that hour and we could only try to be there with her family in spirit.So many of our friends have come to the hospital, sent flowers and cards, memorials, to let us know how sorry they are for this terrible loss. J W grows weaker everyday and is never awake much at all. He builds up lots of "stuff" in his throat that he has trouble getting up and has to be suctioned several times a day, bless his heart. His pain is really great, even when he seems asleep, he will start to moan a lot and I know he needs relief. He only had 1 extra dose of pain med yesterday besides his pain "patch" med. The hospital has been so wonderful to us. They all came around and cried with me when we got the news about Donna Beth. They bring me a tray every meal and all the clinic staff come by everyday to check on J W. We are so lucky to have this wonderful facility. Got to get gone so I can see if I can get J W to eat a little. They are bringing him baby food now for lunch and supper. Oatmeal at breakfast goes down pretty good, we think, then hours later we find it stored in the corners of his throat. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers, these are terribly hard days.
Love
Maw

Susan, thanks for the update from this week. I'm glad ya'll made it back safely.

Happy Birthday to Mike (Dad) on the 12th!

Maw, how you and JW doing? Everybody else, how you doing?

Love,
Blair

We appreciate all the prayers as we traveled to San Antonio, Wednesday. It was great to see all the Williams family again. It was very hard not seeing Donna Beth come strolling down the hall of her home. The memorial service was really nice. The 7 grandsons all had a part and it was wonderful, Brett also had a video of Donna Beth's life. The church was adorned with many of her quilts that were so very beautiful. Gary, Peg, and I had a safe trip and arrived home around 10:30 PM, Thursday night. James Lee surprised us and walked up at the church for the service. Gary and I didn't have any idea he was coming, it was a very wonderful surprise.
Please keep praying for James and Shavonne that some door will open in the job situation. Gary is keeping Stromy today, because her babysitter is out of town. They will have a great day and watch alot of comedies. Hope everyone has a great weekend. Love, Susan

I'm was very sad today to hear that Donna Beth passed away today. I am thinking about her family as well as Maw and Aunt Peg. Love ya'll..
Blair


Betsy, Happy Birthday today! Love, Blair

Oh my gosh. We will keep Donnna Beth in our prayers. That is horrible. Blair

New update....
I don't know all of the details yet, but sometime last night Donna Beth became unresponsive and Gene called for an ambulance to come. They got her to the hospital and found a blockage in one of her arteries and did a balloon angioplasty and placed a stent in the artery. That part went fine, but she has still never regained consciousness. She is on a breathing machine and not responsive at all. She is too unstable for them to run any kind of tests on her at this point. It sounds like something else happened to her besides the blockage but they are just not sure yet what. So I will try to keep you posted as I find out anything. Please pray for her, Gene and the boys.

love,
kittie

Hey Everybody......Kittie thanks for keeping us up to date on Maw and JW. We are praying for them. I know it's really pretty hard right now.

Shavonne thanks for the holiday pics of James and Brock. Loved them.

Hope everyone is ready for Santa? Hehehe.
Love,
Blair

Hey,
Someone from Hospice was suppose to come and talk to mother this afternoon but I haven't talked to her to see what they said or what she has decided but as of this morning, they were planning on trying to move JW home Monday and set him up with Hospice care. I was gone for awhile this evening and didn't want to call her now, hoping she was in bed asleep. So I will talk to her in the morning and see if that is still the plan. Eletia, thanks for calling her yesterday...
I am sure any calls to mother would be greatly appreciated, just so she knows that we love her and care...
JW's brother Cecil came over yesterday to see him and I think a couple of his sister-in-laws were coming to see him this afternoon....That is all I know right now.
Shavone, we will keep you and James in our thoughts and prayers...Be patient(easy to say, hard to do)....God has a plan!!! He always does!!! I was glad to hear you were sending Blair a picture of your decortations...I was beginning to think I was the ONLY ONE WITH A TREE!!! haha
Griffin Sisters, Hope ya'll have a fun weekend together this weekend!!
love,
kittie

Hey everybody.....Hope you had a great week.

Kittie, any new news on Maw and J.W.?

Jill, thannks for emailing me today. Love you bunches.

Maggie, thanks for the Christmas tree pic. Love you bunches.

Shavonne and James, move to DFW! That's my prayer for ya'll. There are good jobs and I could see ya'll more and especially that little Brockster. Hey, we got more room now for ya'll to come down and do the interview thing!!! Love, Blair

Kittie, Thank you for keeping everyone updated on Maw and J.W. We will continue to pray that God wraps his loving arms around the two of them to get them through this rough time.

I know it's been a while since I've been on, for that I appologize. We have been super busy and I just can't seem to find the time for much of anything. We got some of our decorations up last weekend and plan to do the rest this weekend so maybe we can get some pictures for you Blair!

Please include us in your prayers. James and I both are trying like crazy to try to find real careers. I am enjoying my job but to be honest they know that they've got me hooked, they are paying a certified teacher (me) to do an aide's job- which is hardly anything. I know that this is my only foot in the door but man are they slamming that door on my foot!!!

Anyway, hope everyone else is doing well. Can you all believe that Christmas is just around the corner? James and I finally did some Christmas shopping this evening, sure was fun buying gifts for Brock he's still young enough to pick them out but not realize they came home with us!!! Isn't that just wrong!?!?! Ok, better go. . .

God Bless,
James, Shavonne, and Brock

Maw and J.W. you're in my thoughts. Maw get some rest. We all love you very much! Blair

UPDATE.

The hospital has started JW on morphine to try to keep him as pain free as possible. But they say once they start an elderly person on morphine it can really take a toll on the body. So things do not look very good for him....Just wanted everyone to know.
I talked to mother about 8 tonight and she was going home and straight to bed....hopefully she can get a better nights sleep tonight....She had a terrible stomach virus this weekend and was up sick most the weekend...

kittie

First of all HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ZAC....HOPE YOU HAVE A GOOD DAY!!

Just to let everyone know, JW is back in the hospital here in Crosbyton. Mother just cannot take care of him, 24 hours a day, with the condition he is getting in. He really does need constant care and mother, like the rest of us, HAS to work!! She cannot work all day and then be up half the night. The stress and lack of rest is really beginning to wear on her, so maybe if they can keep him in the hospital for a few days it will help her some to get a little bit of rest. Dr. Alley is going to see if he might could qualify, through his Medicare, to stay in the swing bed unit for maybe about three weeks or so. It really is a stressful situation when you HAVE to work to pay your bills and JW's Medicare will not pay for any help. So I guess time will tell.
And I know for her, it is hard to be in much of a holiday spirit when her husband is so ill....So just continue to pray for God's will and hopefully things will get better....

kittie