Final Notes

Hi all,

This is Jamie, Betsy’s husband. Please accept my apologies for taking so long to follow up my last post, it’s been quite a week.

Sadly, Betsy completed her life the morning of Friday November 1st. The lung cancer and the complications thereof were insurmountable. I wrote of the final days on our Caring Bridge page and am reposting them here as I think it says it as well as is possible. Sadly, they also show the optimism we held onto and the illusory nature of such.

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From Caring Bridge:

November 1st, 2024: This is one of the hardest things I've ever written and I do it because we all love Betsy.

After yesterday's joyous day of music and visits, the reality of Betsy's condition started to become more apparent. Her oxygen needs increased through the evening and her lack of any reserves had left her extremely tired. At about 2am she told me she couldn't continue and we requested a meeting with the ICU doctor and nurse. She asked the basic question whether there was any likelihood of her actually getting better. The answer was not yes. This confirmed what she and I both felt. With that, she decided to curtail all treatment and I concurred. We both accepted that the likelihood of a positive outcome was not at all worth the continuing misery she was experiencing. With this decision made, we had a wonderful conversation of our life and travels together. The nurse administered medications to help her be comfortable and discontinued the oxygen support. We held hands and at 7:15 this morning, Betsy Ellen Brown completed her amazing life. My heart is both broken and filled with the love I have experienced over the past 22 1/2 years.

Please raise a toast, sing a song or say a prayer tonight to Betsy. She's off to join the Angel Band and play tunes with the wonderful old fiddlers she so loved.

September 30th: Halloween

This will be short, but it's been quite a day. This morning the medical team concluded that Betsy passed her breathing test with flying colors and relieved her of her breathing tube. She got a fresh mask just in time for Halloween and the consciousness to appreciate all of us. Greg Canote was here playing fiddle for the occasion followed by Frank Blade. The highlight (apart from Betsy cracking jokes) was our dog Barlow getting to come visit with his favorite person and our dear friends Sharon and Jen. So therapeutic for all of us! She's doing well with her breathing and slowly adapting to lower levels of O2. That's good because she keeps asking when she's going to get out of this goddam room?! That's my girl!

I know all your support and songs and energy have made a huge difference in her healing. Thanks and love to you all and we ask you to keep it up! Sing this pretty girl home to me! It's working!

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Final notes:

We will be celebrating Betsy on February 8th here in Seattle, as well as at the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes in Port Townsend WA over the Forth of July week. I will try to post details but space will be limited. We are going to try to live-stream the main portion so people who can’t travel to Seattle can be present.

Besides my personal loss, my great sadness is that we have lost her voice of calm knowledge and reason at this crucial time. I was blessed with being a part of this blog since the moment she decided to try to fill the intense void that existed at the outset of the pandemic. It was truly amazing to watch her do this night after night. At first I was proofreader and offered occasional opinions on style, but soon I was just another reader gobsmacked by what this amazing woman was churning out. I think we were all hoping that we’d be entering this next era in a vastly different healthcare climate with her voice there to help.

In addition to this column, Betsy was also working on a memoir of her life. I am hoping I can bring both that and the compiled writings of this site into a fully realized form. Until then, I intend to keep this Substack site available for people to continue to access her writings. I have paused all paid subscriptions and once I can confirm funds I hope to close down the paid subscriptions and the remainder of funds will be returned to subscribers. It seems straightforward but I want to make sure it is before I press the button on this.

I know I speak for Betsy in thanking all of you for believing in her and being a part of this conversation and community. Let us all help each other through what is to come.

Peace,

Jamie