Journal: 05/08/06

Back to work today. Now that Joann’s back home and the maudlin days are over, I thought I would take a crack at writing her obituary. For some reason, I felt compelled to wait until her ashes returned, maybe because without them, her loss wasn’t quite real. I don’t know all of the reasons for the wait; needing to get some distance may be another factor also. Things look stable enough in my life now that writing her obituary won’t trigger some sort of melancholic tailspin downward.

Joann’s Obituary

Joann Gottlund-Scott August 24, 1951—April 6, 2006 MONTEREY, CA.—Joann Gottlund-Scott, 54, passed away peacefully in her sleep at her home in Monterey with her loving husband by her side on April 6, 2006, from complications of end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and coronary artery disease. Joann was born on August 24, 1951 in Texas; she spent her childhood and teen years in Modesto, Ca. and was a thirty-year resident of the Monterey Peninsula. She divided much of her professional career as a Registered Nurse working at the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula (CHOMP) and the Visiting Nurses Association (VNA) of the Monterey Peninsula. She was well respected in her field by employers, colleagues and patients. Joann had a great love of life and a boundless passion for living it, even through the final three years of her life as her disease advanced. She was always there to lend a hand to friends in need, especially when they were ill or having surgery. Joann was a wonderful wife, loving mother to her son David, and stayed in daily contact with her mother, Mildred, the entire year before she passed away. Joann will be missed by everyone who knew her. Joann was preceded in death by her father, Joe Dubuc, and her mother, Mildred Mahan. Her husband of eighteen months residing in Monterey, Ca., James A. Scott, her son residing in Sacramento, Ca. David R. Shorey, her brother Bobby and sister Janie residing in the Modesto, Ca. area, survive her.