{"id":920381,"date":"2026-07-21T09:57:42","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T16:57:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/?p=920381"},"modified":"2026-07-21T09:57:45","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T16:57:45","slug":"rest-in-peace-bonnie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/blog\/rest-in-peace-bonnie\/","title":{"rendered":"Rest in Peace, Bonnie"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

June 3, 1943 \u2013 June 17, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few weeks ago, I posted that Bonnie recently had a stroke. Before that blog was published, Bonnie had another stroke. And this time she didn\u2019t survive it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past two months, her entire body started gradually failing. She was in a lot of pain. The doctors couldn\u2019t isolate what the problems were other than a general \u201cbody shutting down.\u201d She needed to be on ever-increased doses of morphine at the end. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of us who loved her were sad when she finally passed, but relieved her pain was over. None of us thought she could recover and hearing her moan from the pain was heart-wrenching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She died at home. We had hospice nurses and other help coming over, but most of the time it was just her daughter and\/or me being there. Bonnie was scheduled to move into a hospice the next day but didn\u2019t last long enough to get there.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had previously arranged for cremation services to be done by the Neptune Society. When we notified the hospice nurses that she had passed, they sent a nurse over to verify the death.  That nurse then called the Neptune Society who came and took away the body. They put her into a body bag and wheeled her out on a gurney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve read enough novels to know that whenever somebody dies, the police come over and question everybody. I was the only one with her when she died. The police didn\u2019t come over this time. She was seriously ill at the end and there was nothing suspicious about her death, so the police weren\u2019t even notified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I then opened up some wine with Bonnie\u2019s daughter and her fianc\u00e9, and told \u201cBonnie stories\u201d for a couple of hours. We laughed and cried. It was pretty therapeutic for all of us. Since I\u2019ll be the primary speaker at the memorial service for Bonnie, what we talked about that night gave me good ideas as to what to say at the service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Possibly some of you don\u2019t know, but Bonne and I weren\u2019t officially married. We went through a service in front of God and witnesses, but never filed the papers. Bonnie\u2019s previous husband of 47 years had been career military, and Bonnie would lose a variety of military benefits were she to remarry. So officially we didn\u2019t, but we presented ourselves to the world as husband and wife and most people assumed we were actually married. It wasn\u2019t a huge secret that we weren\u2019t, but more people didn\u2019t know than did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the memorial service, Bonnie\u2019s ashes will be laid to rest at the Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City next to those of Fred Meiwald, the only husband she ever officially had. I will be there front and center to witness it. Fred and I never competed with each other for Bonnie\u2019s affections. Dating married women was never my style. Plus, I was married to Shirley until after Fred died, and cheating on my wife wasn\u2019t my style either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For some time after Bonnie\u2019s death, my phone rang regularly with people saying, \u201cI\u2019m so sorry. I don\u2019t know what to say.\u201d I cried through the first dozen or so of those — and then started crying less as time went by. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know there are people who haven\u2019t gotten the word and for quite some time into the future will ask me about how Bonnie is. Other widows and widowers have gone though this previously. Now it\u2019s my turn. Can\u2019t say I\u2019m looking forward to it, but I\u2019m not actually dreading it. It\u2019s definitely coming and I\u2019ll learn to deal with it as I go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve had many shortcomings through the years. There are readers of my blog who like to regularly remind me of that. Still, Bonnie is something I did right. Dozens of people have told me recently, \u201cI assume you know, but Bonnie loved you very much.\u201d I did know, and it was mutual, and I\u2019m grateful to be reminded that she felt that way and others knew it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of you won\u2019t be in Vegas for her memorial service and\/or aren\u2019t close enough to us for you to feel you want to attend. I\u2019ve notified a lot of people, but I\u2019m sure I must have missed some. I\u2019ve not been myself these days. If you wish to attend, you\u2019re welcome. No RSVP is necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friday, August 7, 2026, 11:20 a.m. in the chapel of the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery, 1900 Veterans Memorial Drive, Boulder City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the service, there will be a luncheon at the home of Richard and Mary Markgraf, 811 Mission Drive, Henderson. It is about \u00bc of a mile west of the 11 freeway (the \u201conly\u201d way back to Las Vegas or Henderson from Boulder City) at the College Drive offramp. Don\u2019t show up here before 12:30. Food will be served and if you wish to bring a salad or dessert, it will be warmly appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There will be a \u201cpass the microphone\u201d opportunity at the luncheon and anyone who has a memory of Bonnie to share will be welcome to do so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

June 3, 1943 \u2013 June 17, 2026 A few weeks ago, I posted that Bonnie recently had a stroke. Before that blog was published, Bonnie had another stroke. And this time she didn\u2019t survive it.  Over the past two months, her entire body started gradually failing. She was in a lot of pain. The doctors […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15763,"featured_media":843442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[561],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/spinach-2.png?fit=500%2C300&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920381"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15763"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=920381"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":920382,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920381\/revisions\/920382"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=920381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=920381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=920381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}