I arrived that Saturday, January 5th, 2013 at Anita’s house located at 631 G Street on the corner of G Street and Fifth Street in Tulelake, CA. My apartment was only a few minutes away by walking distance. Anita had called Alice first and asked Alice if she thought I would mind driving her to the ER. And Alice from what I recall being told mentioned to Anita that she did not think I would mind driving her there in her car. As there was no way I could drive her in my van because it was sitting in the parking lot of the apartments where I live with a blown engine and in need of a rebuilt engine or rebuild the one that is in the van. So the only way I could get Anita to the ER at Sky Lakes would be to drive Anita there in her own car.
I went inside and got the car keys from Anita to start the car, as Anita always liked to warm up her car before driving anywhere. I went outside and headed to the carport where Anita parked her car. I unlocked the driver’s side door, got in and adjusted the car seat, as I am a little taller than Anita. So I had to scoot the seat back from the forward position it was in for Anita.
Anita made sure the dogs were taken care of before we left. Then we both got in the car and headed to the Sky Lakes Cancer Treatment Center to go the ER at Sky Lakes by way of the Sky Lakes Cancer Treatment Center. Anita was running a very high temperature that day and she was very weak.
Anita had her regular way of traveling to Sky Lakes Cancer Treatment Center in Klamath Falls, OR. Instead of taking the cut off that goes towards the Airport and Wal-Mart and going up Washburn Way to highway 39 and then making a right and going to Campus Drive where the Sky Lakes Cancer Treatment Center is located, so is Sky Lakes Medical Center. Anita loved driving the scenic route but it was the long way, not the short way as Anita like going that way. I chose the other route on Washburn because, in my opinion, it is shorter and faster. The idea was to get there as fast as we could and I chose to drive in that direction where Anita would have gone through the town where there are more traffic lights on S 6th.
We arrived at the Sky Lakes Cancer Treatment Center and Anita explained what her plan was, and that was for Sky Lakes Cancer Treatment Center to admit her to the ER at Sky Lakes from the Sky Lakes Cancer Treatment Center instead of going directly to the ER at Sky Lakes Cancer Treatment Center and having to sit and wait with a bunch of strangers to be admitted into the Hospital. As that is the direction Anita was headed in due to her high temperature and her white blood cell count being so low, from what I remember about her blood counts at the time. In fact, I believe it was Iva Rogers of the Senior Center that had suggested for Anita to be admitted that way. It was more humane that way and not so humiliating, especially when you are so deadly sick. Who wants to be around other people you do not know? You want to be around people you know and they know you and have since Anita was first given the diagnosis of having Acute Leukemia. In fact, they were getting to know who I was too. They knew Shannon had passed away on December 13, 2012, and knew it had taken its toll on Anita too. After all who wants to lose a child first, as a parent. They knew I was Anita’s best friend and I was there to support Anita every step of the way through this deadly disease of cancer Anita was going through in Anita Silva's last days on earth.
Before Shannon passed away it was Shannon who would hold her mother’s hand and go with Anita on most of her appointments at the Sky Lakes Cancer Treatment Center. There was one time they both went to Portland, OR at the hospital up there because Anita was told that Portland may have a new treatment program that might help Anita with her present situation. They both made the trip together in July of 2012 where the hospital up there under hospice would cover a few days in a local motel while she was there taking even more tests. It was the last trip that both Mother and Daughter took a trip together. It was for them like a mini vacation they had never had before. They had memories of spending time together they would never have again or the opportunity to have again.
Anita asked if I would let her dogs out three times a day during this time because Ray would not be able to do it because of Ray working in the potato shed. So I would go over three times a day to do it because I had a key Anita had given to me. The same key that the moment Anita had passed away Ray wanted. Ray said to me moments after Anita passed away. “I know this may sound cold, but could I have Anita’s key to the house?” And I said, “Sure, no problem, I had planned on giving it to you anyway.” Ray was in a hurry to get in control from the passing of Anita moments after her passing at 11:18 AM on March 30, 2013.
Ray was about Ray and no one else, but Ray. To the point when I mentioned to Ray that the trunk in one of Anita’s spare rooms was promised to the Pastor and his wife from the Baptist Church in Malin as Anita’s wish for them to have it. Mainly, because when Shannon was in Portland dying, the pastor Claude and his wife Maryellen arranged and bought round-trip airfare for Anita and soon as she was able to go. As Anita was in the middle of her chemo treatments when Shannon became ill and was first at Sky Lakes, then flown to Portland where they had hoped they could operate up there, but it was too late as the poison had spread through-out Shannon’s brain. The only thing left at the time for Shannon was for them to make her as comfortable as they could in a hospice setting in Portland and Anita wanted to be with Shannon. The pastor and his wife were trying to make that possible by paying for the airfare to help Anita knowing there was no way Anita had the money to do it. In fact, the pastor and his wife made it possible for Anita's friend Nancy to rent a car and visit with Anita in February 2013. Nancy knew Anita when they both lived in Alturas before Anita's husband Henry Passed away in March of 2007, a month after my mom did in Alturas. Anita and I had not crossed paths when my Mom and I lived in Alturas. Nancy also along with Jane of the Modoc Record Newspaper but the obituary together where Ray and JoAnne (Jojo) failed too. Not even in the Herald and News was there any obituary of the passing of Anita Silva by either one of those two, but they gained everything Anita left behind on account of her death and Shannon's.
Anita wanted the pastor and his wife to have the trunk as a way of at least trying to help pay back the pastor and his wife for what they had done for her. First with the airfare and then paying to help Nancy spend time with Anita in her last days. As Anita was unable to use the ticket and there was a no refund policy with the airlines that they bought the ticket from for Anita. I mentioned that to Ray at the time Anita passed away right in front of Marylyn. Which I think I embarrassed Marylyn when I did but with Ray, you have to be point blank or his does not get it. But he got it and chooses not to fulfill Anita's wishes, which was the first of many to come for Ray not fulfilling Anita’s wishes.
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