u may have already heard the news...Appachen passed away peacefully at 6 10 pm, 17th dec.IST wanted to go home, be on his own bed, said that the hospital bed was not comfortable. doc said that he could not go home, but the bed cld be brought to ICU. so georgie did that, Appachen lay on his own bed. georgie went home to get some food ,but gracie phoned to say that Appachen was not good and to bring Usha and Jay. So they rushed to hospital, and they cld see the ECG monitor recording a very slow heart rate and the tracing very irregular. joseph was on the line talking to Dr Raju. . Appachen breathed his last. Thank God that he had a very peaceful end, he got his last wish fulfilled, and did not suffer and was not bed -ridden. thanks to all for all the prayers, love and support.
love to all lizzie.

Dear Kochamma's, Achachen's This is so sad. Appachen was a real gent. His sacrifice and hard work is why the entire Theckethil family has moved forwards We, his `grandchildren' owe a him a lot Our successes and positions in life reflect the sacrifices he made for his siblings We had great times with him when he was Bangalore Appachen; before he became Tambaram Appachen I will miss him. I will have great memories of him. I am glad we got to see him and got his blessings earlier his year We pray for him and for you God Bless Him
Lots of Love xxxxxxxxx Dad, Joe, Jean, Paul, Jaya and families

Georgie informed me at 6.30. Rang up Johny Oopappen just now. he said that > appachen had a very peaceful end. he did a lot of talking today. Repeated all the past history of hospital etc etc to the doctors and the nurses. Seemed to have known that he was going.May his soul rest in peace.He is now with Christ and all his beloved ones gone on before him. What a reunion there must be in heaven now Love Mary

It is a common practice to ring the church bell for a departed soul but not after 6pm. This morning I was blessed to have heard the Church bell ringing while I was talking to gracie And that was for our Dear appachen. Gracie said that Appachen's sudden death was totally unexpected as no organ function indicated it.Was talking a lot but around 5pm complained of breathing difficulty. Doc. asked if he had a headache . No. Oxygen was given . Later he became unconcious for about 15 mins and then passed off. Doctor feels that a blood clot was released into his brain which caused the death. Joseph was supposed to have gone to Kumbanad on Fiday and personally attend to appachen. but it was not to be. God had his own time to call Appachen home. Perhaps things could have been more disastrous if he had lived on. after all he was getting weaker as it would be at that age. normal routine functions etc was becoming difficult. Chances to suffer stroke, heart attack etc was more. But he is gone without. suffering. i always feared his death somewhere in the middle of the night\a stroke \ heartattack and no one would know about it till morning. God saved him from all that.I feel a sense of deep loss for Appachen. How comforting and fulfilling God's promises are. Isaiah 46 :3to4 says 'Listen to me you whom I have upheld since you were conceived, and have carried since your birth. Even to your old age and grey hairs I am he who will sustain you I have made you and I will carry you God did his part for appachen in this above promise and Appachen fulfilled his part as quoted in Job 5; 26 and 27 "You will come to the grave in full vigor, like sheaves gathered in season. We have examined this and it is true. So hear it and apply it to yourself." and presented to God a body that has not been withered by sickness and disease except what happens as nature dictated. Bless his Dear soul.
Love mary

It's after 10pm here on Tuesday night. Last night at this time I was talking to Gracie. It was about 8 am (17th) in Kumbanad when I made contact with Gracie. We talked for about 45 minutes, until the doctor came to make his rounds.... so she had to leave. Gracie had not seen any emails for a few days, so I relayed some of the info from those emails. Appachen seemed to have periods of normalcy interspersed with periods of difficulty. The echocardiogram trip on Monday seemed to have tired him a lot, she said. Still, after some rest, he was back to normal, and as Mary described, he had most of the nurses' attention with tales of the hospital from 20, 30, 40 yrs ago. On occasion he would tire suddenly and have difficulty breathing and would have to be given oxygen. On one occasion, he was feeling fine before a sponge bath, but just sitting up long enough for the sponge bath caused breathing difficulties again. Most of the time, he seemed to be ok.... with intermittent periods of difficulty. The ICU room was cool, but because the temperature remained the same, Appachen said he didn't feel as cold at night. At home, it seemed that after he warmed up during the day, he felt his skin "shrink" as it got colder. Because the nurses woke him up around 5:30 am with their morning routines, Appachen was ready for coffee at that time. (At home, he stayed in bed till almost 8am). So Gracie went on her scooter and brought Appachen coffee at 5:45 am. Georgie brought b'fast around 9am. When I talked to Gracie that morning, she had brought Appachen his morning coffee, had talked to him. He was doing fine that morning.... and she told me in Malayalam what Appachen told her would solve everything.... go home and take an oil bath!! She told him to ask the doctor, and Appachen said he would do that when the doctor came by later!! She said he seemed to be in good spirits and it appeared that way to me too, from some of the conversations she recounted to me. Although Appachen was admitted on Friday, he seemed to be doing very well by Saturday. Georgie was scheduled for a minor surgical procedure on Saturday.... he had a problem with the nail on his big toe, and the nail needed to be surgically removed. Of course, when Appachen was admitted, he was going to wait till later. But when Appachen seemed to have recovered Saturday, Johny Oop convinced Georgie to go ahead and have his procedure done. After that Georgie was supposed to stay put for 2 days. However, you can all imagine the running around he has done on one leg since then. That was the main reason that Gracie took her scooter to Kumbanad..... to reduce the amount of trips that georgie had to make. As for Gracie herself, she was scheduled to go to Bangalore because Sangeeta had exams thru Xmas. She had arranged for someone to look after the house and feed the dog, which, of course they are doing while she ended up at Kumbanad. (She may be home now). After getting Lizzie K's email last night, I decided to look for plane tickets. I did some exploring on the net, and went to work this morning with Adam's passport in my pocket (he needed a visa to India) and a plan to have the travel agent look for tickets leaving here on 24th or 25th. I did open my email, and about a minute after reading Mary's email, as I was staring at the screen, Joseph's email arrived with the sad news. Later during the day, I got phone calls from Rekha, Rajiv and Susykochamma. Lizzie talked to Tammy. I have been away most of the afternoon, so I realised from Josecha's last email that maybe some of you weren't aware of some of the info I had. Hence this long winded email.
Love to all of you. Ben

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