May Vain Faircloth Coates

I had a fantastic mother-in-law for 28 years. She was a very down-to-earth, quiet, hard-working, God-fearing woman. May grew up in a very, big family in the 1930s. So one can imagine how poor people were back then. When she was in the hospital giving birth to my hubby, her father was also in the hospital very sick. She was not told about her father until after she had given birth. May did not have an easy life and the only ones that knew that were the ones closest to her. Complaining was not part of her life. She had been diagnosed with a lung disease ( a long time ago), dementia (sp?) and had COPD. She had been on oxygen 24/7 since 2006. 2008 proved to be a very hard year for her due to her illness. When she would go to the doctor, he would ask her, "Ms. Coates, how are you feeling today?" and she would always say, "I'm just fine." We could tell she was really going down hill in the fall of 2008. It was very hard to see her physical strength diminish and watch her gasp for air even while she was on oxygen. Barry's sister, Bonnie, took care of their mom. Shortly after Christmas, she had to be admitted to the hospital. We received the call on 12/31/08 at 11:50 p.m. that May had went into cardiac arrest and they were able to revive her. We threw clothes in a suitcase and proceeded to drive the 3 hrs. to WV. We were able to spend some very precious time with her. She never regained consciousness but would respond to our voices. May did not want to be kept alive by machines and in fact, there was a DNR order on file, but the nurses that were working with her did not know about it. We had some very sweet times with her and as a family. Emily and Meghan's family were able to get to WV to spend some time with their grandmother.
The family decided to take her off life support on Friday evening, Jan. 2, 2009. She met her Savior that night around 10:00 p.m.
Mom you are greatly missed and we have the hope of seeing you again.
Love you!