I need some happy thoughts, for Hayley

Please excuse the long post. I'm in a bad way right now and I don't want to share this with all of the idiots on Facebook. Y'all are a special bunch, so I know you'll appreciate the sentiment.

Some of y'all know that I was raised by my grandmother. And just a few of you know that it's because my mother was (and still is) a raging alcoholic. She drank, heavily, before I was conceived, and then again after I was born. I can only thank God for the sober months while I was growing.

She disappeared time and time again, leaving me behind like I was nothing more than a burden. My grandmother was there to do the job that my mother should have done.

During the alcohol fueled insanity that was my childhood, my mother met my stepfather. I was 6 at the time. He seemed alright in the beginning, but then his true self came out. He beat my mother close to death many, many times. As an adolescent, I tried to intervene several times only to be thrown into a wall or told to shut up before I ended up in the street with no where to live.

I was never able to have friends over, like other children my age did. Only once, did I try, after she promised to behave. I was stupid enough to believe her. She ended up drinking so much that night, that she passed out and started foaming at the mouth. My friend's mom picked her up just as the ambulance was leaving.

When I was 14, my grandmother, who had lived with us my entire life, was kicked out of the house during one of my mother's drunken rages. Literally. All of her belongings were thrown onto the road and the doors locked up tight. I was told that I had two choices. To be quiet and deal with it, or to end up like my grandmother: no longer part of the family. I left. I didn't take a thing with me but the shoes on my feet.  I helped grandma pick her things up while we waited on a friend to take us to a hotel.

I never lived in my parent's house again after that night. Because of my grandmother, I was able to get to where I am today.

She's been feeling ill the past few weeks, and I know she was worried that she'd caught another cold. I went through my checklist of health related things to ask her during our last phone conversation. She said she was tired, and felt sick, but thought she'd be ok. She ended up going to the hospital via ambulance after taking a fall in her apartment. The doctors said that she has pneumonia and there are 3 spots on her lungs. She's been there for a couple of days now.

Tonight, I got a phone call from my sister saying that grandma has had a change in condition, and is now very confused, unable to speak much, and shakes very badly. I tried to talk with her on the phone and I had to hold back the tears. She was not making any sense. My smart, well spoken grandmother was just mumbling utter nonsense. Then, she asked who I was. I fear she may have had a stroke. All the signs/symptoms point to it. The neuro team even came in to examine her and they're running all sorts of scans now. They think she might be Septic (blood poisoning from an untreated infection) and that it's causing her condition to deteriorate as rapidly as it has.

I had to sit down with Hayley (my 12 year old) to tell her a simplified (and slightly sugar coated) version of what's happening. Grandma helped me raise Hayley after I went through my divorce and had to work 3 jobs. This woman is Hayley's entire world. Naturally, Hayley asked to call my grandmother and talk to her, so I let her. She said she couldn't understand her, and I could tell that it scared her. She also said that grandma told her that she feels like it's her time to go. She said that she knows it's coming and was glad that Hayley called her to say goodbye.

Please, Hayley needs all the prayers you can spare. I'm worried about how this will effect her, as she and my grandmother are so very close.

Thank you. Sorry for the rambling.