Remember Mae Magouirk? You know, the grandma who was being starved by her loving granddaughter because “Grandmama is old and I think it is time she went home to Jesus.” It turns out that Mae had something of a different take on the subject:

It appears there will be a happy ending to the story of Ora Mae Magouirk, the 81-year-old Georgia widow whose family has been at loggerheads over her medical care, visitation privileges and whether she should be “allowed to die” but now is reaching agreements on key issues.

Today, attorneys on both sides agreed Magouirk’s brother and sister, A.B. McLeod, 64, of Anniston, Ala., and Lonnie Ruth Mullinax, 74, of Birmingham, will be allowed to visit their sister during regular visiting hours at the University of Alabama-Birmingham Medical Center in Birmingham, where she is receiving treatment for an aortic dissection.

As reported by WND, when Magouirk was airlifted and admitted to UAB Medical Center on Saturday, her granddaughter and legal guardian, Beth Gaddy, 36, of LaGrange, Ga., left an oral order barring Magouirk’s siblings and her nephew, Ken Mullinax, 45, of Birmingham, from visiting the patient in the critical care unit.

In addition, Mr. Mullinax and Mae’s sister Ruth will be given regular updates on her condition, something that was also denied by Gaddy.

Here’s an account of Ruth’s first visit with her sister since Mae was admitted to UAB Medical Center suffering from severe dehydration as well as the untreated aortic dissection:

“I visited with Sister Mae last evening, and she looks so much better now,” Ruth Mullinax said. “Mae opened her eyes and when she saw me said, ‘Where you been, Lonnie?’”
“I asked her how she felt and she whispered, ‘I can’t buck dance.’”

“So I stayed with her for 30 minutes, and when I got ready to leave she grabbed my hand and said, ‘Bring me a brown sack and take me home.’ That was a saying of Momma’s that means pack up my stuff. I am so thankful to the Lord that Sister is doing so well now

Is Mae one tough old bird or what! Buck dancing is like “clogging” which has its origins in Appalachia and is characterized by very quick steps.

Yes, it certainly appears we should have just let this woman die of thirst in a hospice. After all, what did she have to live for? Any one who makes jokes while lying in a hospital bed with tubes coming out of her arm (IV fluids for the dehydration) and nose (temporary feeding tube) has to be so depressed, its better that we put her out of her misery. And, since she wants her sister to take her home, we must also assume she’s delirious. Why shouldn’t she want to go back to the hospice so she can die in peace?

THE PEOPLE WHO CRITICIZED THOSE OF US WHO TRIED TO PUBLICIZE THIS CASE SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES. HERE IS A WOMAN WHO WANTS TO LIVE! AND YOUR WERE PERFECTLY WILLING TO ALLOW HER TO BE MURDERED JUST SO YOU COULD MAKE A POLITICAL POINT ABOUT THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT.

FOR SHAME!

And you don’t think bloggers made a difference?

Gaddy relaxed her position [on visitation]. She agreed to allow full visitation privileges, but only if Ken Mullinax promised never to talk to the media again or communicate in any way with Internet bloggers.

Mullinax refused and was on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity & Colmes” yesterday, where he provided a nationwide audience with details of the case. Hannity quoted from an exclusive story on WND, which was the first national news organization to investigate and report on the Magouirk case.

And another item of interest connected to the case involves the probate judge who originally gave the loving granddaughter custody of Mae:

In another twist, Troup County Probate Judge Donald Boyd, who has had charge of the case since April 1, voluntarily recused himself.

Kirby told WorldNetDaily that Boyd gave no reason for his decision.

My guess is that judge has learned a valuable lesson. It’s not good to fool with bloggers.

UPDATE:

Paul at Wizbang has a rather thoughtful and reasonable post asking why people on the “other side” of the Mae Magouirk matter are so, well…mad:

The simple mention of her name makes many people I formerly respected say the most irrational things. Not to belabor the point, but as I see it, the core problem is that this woman’s living will was being ignored….

Now I (apparently foolishly) thought universally everyone would agree that was a bad thing. Who would want their own living will ignored??? Not me.

I think that the Magouirk matter coming so close on the heels of the Terri Schiavo imbroglio is one reason. I think another reason is that perhaps some on the “other side” (who Paul rightly says are tough to label “conservative” or “liberal” ) may genuinely be in intellectual distress over the entire debate. Maybe they’re genuinely torn and are unable to verbalize their uncertainty except by lashing out at people who seem to have staked out a clear moral position.

Maybe…just maybe…the ultimate consequences of their position are starting to hit home, that each incremental movement toward out and out euthanasia brings us closer to the unthinkable; humans having to justify their own existence to stay alive.

As I mention in the post above, it’s obvious that Mae Magouirk wants to live. And to deny her medical care or even basic hydration because her prognosis at age 81 is poor or, as her granddaughter said, it’s time for her to “go home to Jesus” is just plain feel-it-in-your-gut, out and out wrong. Could the part of the brain that some scientists believe controls our “conscience” be trying to tell our friends on the other side something?

I sincerely hope so.