Eleanor B. O'Grady

Eleanor O'Grady passed away on Saturday January 18, 2025 at 4:30 in the morning. In so many ways she was a remarkable woman, but pain was woven throughout the fabric of her life. One of the biggest sources of pain was her ex-husband, a war hero who was charming and kind to friends, acquaintances, and coworkers, but was denigrating, critical and often cruel to his wife and children. It is a testament to Eleanor's courage and strength that 3 of her 4 children survived into functioning adulthood from the turmoil and pain of their childhoods. It was a well-known secret that Eleanor sought solace from her physical and emotional pain in opioids, which were the one true thing that she could turn to that would not let her down, so to speak. The drugs and alcohol slowly changed her. Over time, her adult children and other relatives created boundaries, most notably the boundary of thousands of miles of distance, to protect their lives from Eleanor's instability, unpredictability, and unreasonable demands.
Eleanor lived life on her own terms. She created a world where she could be happy and remain independent and on her own to the very end. She loved to cook, garden, crochet, entertain, and shop. She loved children and adored her grandchildren and great grandchildren. Her zest for life was infectious and made her fun to be around. She was resilient, often singularly focused on her desires, and generous to a fault. For this reason, the people she found to help her sometimes took advantage of her. She wouldn't have had it any other way. She was in charge of her life. Her experience as a nurse, and later as a psychiatric nurse gave her a deep understanding and compassion for the flawed characters that often surrounded her. There were some truly good people that helped her to keep her life on the rails and without them, things would have derailed years ago.
We all have our flaws. As her daughter, one of my many flaws was to return late to help Eleanor. We are indebted to the people who helped Eleanor at Banner University Medical Center, including Dr Wegman; Kelly, Ty, Bri, Hanna, and Miguel (physical and occupational therapy); Eyelia and Francine (ostomy specialists); Carmen, Sarah, and Brigid (caseworkers); Dr. Singh; Dr Najii; Dr. Byrne; Gina, Mercedes, and Teresa (labs); Nicole (dietician); Maria (social worker); Nev and Daisy; Dr. Telken; Norma and Olga (housekeepers); Dr. Kevin Liu and his nurse Addy; Nicole from Discharge; Shelby; Shelley; Daniella; Valeria; Dr. Hassanin (Toxicology); Richard and Vanessa (BBPD); Byron, Deb, Vridjana, Alejandria, Tracy (RNs); Sandra (Nurse assistant); Dr. Bilza; Rich (X-ray); Naomi; Dr. Fu (Geriatrics); Rebekah (Hospice of the Valley rep); Father Emmanuel (Healing of the Sick); Maya and Lexi; and Dr. Abudoff (Nephrologist). A debt of gratitude to Dr. Al Ahdam, singularly focused on diagnosis and healing. A special thank you to the staff at Thunderbird Inpatient Care, especially Cha and Laura who helped Eleanor and I through her last hours. Apologies for any misspellings or wrong job specialties. Thank you to everyone whose names I remembered as well as those whose names are not mentioned - - all of you make a tremendous difference in peoples' lives and it's likely you may not hear this enough.
Thank you to Erin from Hospice Promise, Micky at Medassure, Lauren Pille from Clarendale Arcadia, Angel from McDowell Village, Jonathan Dale from Haven Sky Harbor, LaDonna and Daniel at the Summit, Nicole who helped me find better parking. Finally, a big thank you to Laurie and Judy who were there for Eleanor when she needed them, and Ana O. who was like a daughter to Eleanor and a sister to me.