"I'll Be Your Eyes" by Chris DeMakes

My husbands grandmother, Phyllis Allen, was born in Michigan on April 5, 1920. In 1980, she moved to Port Charlotte, Florida. She lived a wonderful, healthy life until a disease called Temporal Arteritis robbed her of her eye sight at the age of 84. Temporal Arteritis affects medium-to-large arteries. It causes inflammation, swelling, tenderness, and damage to the blood vessels that supply blood to the head.

She was a trooper though. For almost 10 years, she could hug the wall and find her way to the bathroom, feed herself and recall memories as if they were yesterday. Her daughter, Sharon DeMakes (my mother in law) and father in law, Doug DeMakes, were her primary caregivers for this whole time. In August of 2014, a severe bladder infection hospitalized her. At her age, it was too much to rebound from and her health quickly deteriorated. A hospital bed was brought in to my in-laws home and set up in their living room.

Granny (as we affectionately called her) was under constant care for 24 hours a day by Tidewell Hospice, the local hospice service here in Port Charlotte and the three surrounding counties. They are a not-for-profit organization, completely funded through Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance and donations. They were an absolute blessing to our family. They would come in, change her bedding, change diapers, administer medication, dress her, check her vital signs and a whole host of other things. Most of all, they understood the process that is the end of life. The volunteers from Tidewell Hospice would come and sit with Granny for a few hours every week, so that my in-laws could get out of the house, run errands or have dinner together. Basically, providing them with some sort of life outside the constant pressure of being caregivers and knowing that the only end in sight was granny's passing away.

Granny hung on for almost 6 months and died peacefully with my in-laws beside her on January 10, 2015. She was just 3 months shy of her 95th birthday. My brother in law, Chris DeMakes, has written a song called "I'll Be Your Eyes." He wrote it as if it were written by his mother to her mother. Thank you for taking care of grandma. 

If you're reading this, please share on your social media sites. We want to raise as much money and awareness for Hospice as we can, so that the next family who needs help can receive the care and blessing that is Hospice.

For more information about Tidewell Hospice, please visit:www.tidewellhospice.org. .

To donate, please click HERE. In the box that reads, "In Memory of", please type Phyllis Allen. That way, Tidewell can track your gift, keep me informed, and I can update you on how much we have raised.

Thank you for taking the time to listen and especially donating in memory of Granny.

I'll Be Your Eyes-Copyright 2015 Chris DeMakes Songs
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Words and Music written by: Chris DeMakes (twitter.com/lessthanchris)
Produced by: Chris DeMakes & Roger Lima
Recorded and Engineered by Roger Lima (Facebook.com/Moathouse.studio)
Mixed by: Jamie Woolford (jamiewoolford.com)
Mastered by: Dan Coutant (srmastering.com)
Video montage by: Michelle DeMakes

Chris DeMakes: Electric & Acoustic Guitars, Lead & Backing Vocals
Roger Lima: Bass Guitar
George Rebelo: Drums & Percussion
Ryan Baker: Piano & Organ
Darlene Douglas, Monique Richardson & Khanya Bennett: Gospel Singers

In loving memory of Phyllis Marietta Allen