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| Jim and Nina at the reception following Brian and Christy's wedding near Ann Arbor, July 30, 2005. |
This web page contains information about the life and legacy of Nina Tone. The Tone Family hopes you find it useful. You have all been so supportive in person and in your prayers. Thank you.
One of Mom's favorite hymns was "Great Is Thy Faithfulness," and although she struggled with the pain of cancer and Alzheimer's, we know there is the hope of Jesus and His never-ending faithfulness.
We thought we would try to keep you updated here on our web site. When there is some new information, I will try to notify you by email. I am choosing not to put my email address on this page in order to prevent search engines from adding my address to their junk email lists. However, I will be glad to answer any email that you send.
In preparation for Nina's visitation and memorial service, we have created a booklet that remembers her life and honors her memory. Download a PDF version of the memorial booklet.
We now have information to share regarding mom's memorial service, but I'd really like to think of it as a celebration of her life.
Visitation: August 18, 2005 5pm - 8pm
Memorial Service: August 19, 2005 11am
Both at:
Bloomington Covenant Church (directions)Memorials preferred for Bloomington Covenant Church or American Cancer Society
Click here for the obituary notice.
At 7:20 p.m., Mom went home to Jesus. Dad was with her as she peacefully took her last breath. He called us girls at about 7:00 p.m. because her breathing was slowing down quickly. We thought we would have enough time to have all of us there with her, but she had already died by the time we arrived. We, as well as other visitors, have been saying goodbye most of the week, so mom knew she was much loved and how much she will be missed.
Her shining light for Jesus has left a remarkable legacy for those of us who remain behind.
Mom has had more pain today than yesterday and we are increasing her pain medication as time goes on. Her skin is starting to look yellow which indicates that her liver is in the process of shutting down. The doctor is not able to give us a real time frame, but seemed to hint at a matter of days now.
She still sleeps most of the time, but when visitors come she opens her eyes and gives a smile. She also responds to "I love you" with her own "Love you too" in return. But, for the most part she will answer only with a yes or no.
She still seems to hear what we are saying, even while resting. So, if you have a message you would like me to read to her, please send it to me (Darci) in email and I will be happy to read it to her. I am also singing to her from a hymnal and reading to her from the Bible, so if you want her to hear a specific hymn or passage, please let me know that as too.
Dad is holding up well -- and we all seem to mix up the tears with laughter. We all struggle with her suffering, yet it is hard to say good-bye. Keep holding us up in prayer, that mom will know and feel our love until she falls straight into the loving arms of Jesus.
Mom started a new round of chemotherapy on Tuesday, August 2. Almost immediately, she became very weak and was not eating or drinking much. She stayed in bed most of the time and had difficulty getting up to go to the bathroom. On Saturday, Dad took her to the emergency room and she was admitted to Fairview Southdale Hospital late that night. She is getting IV fluids while the staff is trying to control her blood pressure and pain. She sleeps most of the time, but wakes briefly when someone comes to visit. Although her eyes are closed, she is usually lightly listening to what is going on around her. She will stay in the hospital until both her blood pressure and her pain control are stabilized. When that happens, she will move into to the care of a hospice program that focuses on comfort and care during the last days of her life.
There is no further treatment for the cancer and we are focusing on making mom as comfortable as possible. The doctor has indicated that Mom will be with us at the most for only a few more weeks.
Mom made it to Brian's (Dennis's son, mom's grandson) wedding. She got into the spirit of the casual, Hawaii theme by wearing pink shorts and a bright pink Hawaii shirt (as seen in the picture below). She was very tired when we arrived in Ann Arbor, MI but rested enough to enjoy the wedding. She enjoyed seeing and holding her great-grandson, Brayden, once again. It was a very touching moment to watch her holding the hands of Brian and his new bride, Christy, as she prayed for them and gave them her blessing. Even in her pain and tiredness, she reached out to minister in prayer to the newlyweds.
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| At Brian and Christy's wedding. Kristi, Dennis, Sandy, Christy, Brian, Grandma, Grandpa. |
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| Paul, David, Sandy, Debra, Darci, Brayden, Diana, Jim, Nina, Melody, Steve. |
Mom has once again been experiencing a loss of appetite. She had an appointment with her oncologist today and the news was not great. Her cancer activity has gone up again (sounds like quite significantly) and she is back to her three options listed below. Except this time, the I.V. drug will probably have more severe side effects. She will probably feel much more tired and unwell. She and Dad are heading off to the wedding this weekend and she has decided to start the new chemo next week.
As of today, Nina is feeling pretty well. She went through I.V. chemo-therapy once a week during March, April, May, and June. This treatment was mild and she has felt fairly healthy despite some tingling in fingers and toes, and losing her hair. This treatment has brought her "tumor-marker" (a cancer activity indicator) to a low for three months in a row and now she is able to take a break in her treatment. I heard she just about jumped off the examining table to cheer when she heard she didn't have to endure I.V. sticks for a while. Throughout all of this, she and Dad were still taking daily walks of about 1-1/2 miles through Moir Park.
She is looking forward to her next grandchild's wedding, Brian Tone, on July 30th, 2005.
In 1978, Mom had her first battle with breast cancer. After surgery, she fully recovered.
In May of 1998, Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer in her remaining breast. Again, she had surgery, but this time we received the disheartening news that the cancer had spread to her lymph system. Because the cancer was "estrogen-recepetive," her initial treatment was five years of taking a drug called Tamoxifen. During this time, she felt great. In fact, if you went with her on one of her three mile walks then, you might have been left in the dust!
That initial treatment is only used for five years (I don't know/remember why), but many women remain cancer free following this regimen. Within months of completing that treatment, Mom experienced upper abdomen pain, bouts of nausea, and a significant loss of appetite. Her doctor ordered a CT scan. This showed several tumors on the liver; the largest was between 2-3 inches big. A liver biopsy determined that the tumors were from breast cancer that had spread to the liver. The five years of the previous treatment had not removed all the cancer, but had only held it back.
Mom was put on a different drug called Arimidex that they expected to work for 6-12 months. This was successful once it kicked in, but the doctor indicated it would be several months before we would know if it was working. Meanwhile, Mom was getting thinner and weaker by the day. Before the two months were over, she ended up in the hospital for over a week. I must admit that I thought she might not make it. She was in quite a bit of pain during that time and her will power to live was failing. We hated to see her give up before we had the chance to see if this new drug could give her more time.
However, she had made a goal for herself: to see her grandchild, Kristi, get married in the Detroit area in July, 2003 (first grandchild to get married!). We knew she needed to eat and drink on her own and we would always get the best response by bringing up the wedding. Finally, it seemed like she had just decided she was going to make it to that wedding, and she turned her hospital stay around. Before we knew it, Mom was walking up down the hospital hallways many times a day dragging along whoever was there and the ever-present I.V. cart. July found her at the wedding in a brand new outfit, dancing to the song "YMCA" with a whole group of grandchildren around her.
The Arimidex worked for about 15 months. Mom ended up in the hospital one more time, and once again recovered as we tried another new drug called Exomestane. This new medicine worked only for a short while and the next one, not at all. This brings us to February of 2005, when we discovered that the tumors on her liver were once again rapidly increasing in size. We were out of oral drug options and Mom need to make some decisions.
As many of you know, in addition to cancer, Mom has been in the early stages of Alzheimer's for many years now. So, the three sisters and Mom and Dad sat there in the doctor's office using the little white board to lay out Mom's three options.
Option 1: Do nothing, and she has about three months to live.
Option 2: Try an I.V. chemotharpy (Mom hates I.V.s, she has always been a "hard-stick" and thanks, by the way mom, for passing that trait on to me). The chemotherapy may make her so sick that she might actually die sooner than the three months.
Option 3: Try an I.V. chemotherapy and it could work indefinitely.
So Mom needed to choose one of these options, and we were not sure if the Alzheimer's would interfere with her ability to make this decision. However, Mom, true to form with her sense of humor, looks at the board and says, "Frankly, I don't like any of those options." She understood all too well!
Well, she chose Option 3, and I think a good part of that was because she really wanted to see the first great grandchild (Kristy's little boy, Brayden). She made it out to North Carolina for Brayden's baptismal service. We even took the traditional four generation picture.
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| Back row: Kevin Williams, Dennis Tone, Jim Tone; Front row: Sandy Tone, Kristi Williams, Brayden Williams, Nina, Tone |