Journey’s End…

Rita’s journey through this life has come to an end, and this will be the final post for her travel blog, an incredible sojourn in words and images that has spanned 17 years.  This time has been filled with adventures, and some tribulations; with joys and sorrows; with gaining new friends and losing others.  This blog has, in many ways, been simply a record of a life well-lived; a world well-explored; and a mind well-filled.

Starting some ill-defined time in 2025, but certainly evident by Thanksgiving, Rita began having subtle cognitive changes, which were mainly attributed to her seasonal grief over the passing of son, Darren Lunbery, in May of 2021.  Darren’s birthday is midway between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and that season had become emotionally difficult for her.  As the new year began, however, it became clear that something more was occuring.  Several doctor visits ruled out dementia; mental health evaluations resulted in trial runs with a couple of medications (Rita had struggled in the past with clinical depression, and bi-polar syndrome is common in her family); and through it all her symptoms continued to intensify.

Despite growing cognitive difficulties, Rita kept on adventuring, although she was unable to post blogs about these adventures.  In December she and Chris hiked in the Painted Desert north of Joseph City with son Lewis, and found fossilized Dinosaur eggshells.  

 

 

In early January cousin Jerry Crouch came to visit with his family, and Rita and Chris took them hiking on part of the Black Canyon Trail near Bumblebee AZ.  

 

 

Later in January Chris and Rita spent most of a week hiking and exploring in Death Valley, a place Rita had always dreamed of visiting.  They encountered aliens on the way there; on the way home, they detoured to the ghost town of Ryolite.  

 

 Twice they went hiking in Agua Fria National Monument, the goal being to reach Baby Canyon Ruin.  Rita’s health was such that she couldn’t make it, although on the second effort Chris left her sitting comfortably and reached the site on his own.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

In February, Chris and Rita traveled to Willcox to stay with old friend Casey Dennis and went out to see the Sandhill Cranes and also do a hike at Middlemarch Pass in the Dragoon Mountains.  

 

 

In mid-March, niece Shannon came down from Oregon, and the three of them did a couple of short hikes in the Prescott area, one in the Sierra Prieta Mountains, the other at Granite Mountain.  

 

 

Rita’s last foray out, in April, was a walk, not far from home, along Granite Creek in Watson Woods with Chris and son Lewis.  The sweet peas were starting to bloom.

 

 

In late March, while awaiting an early April appointment with a neurologist, and in the midst of a series of tests in preparation, Rita had a cognitive crisis and ended up in the ER where a CAT scan discovered a mass in her brain.  A sojourn to Barrow’s Neurological Institute in Phoenix showed this to be an advanced glioblastoma, an incurable form of brain cancer.  As per her wishes, she returned home under hospice care.

Her final weeks, while she slowly faded, were filled with as much love, laughter and joy as we could pack in.  Dozens and dozens of friend and family visited, playing dominos and mahjong, playing music, pigging out on too much pizza and ice cream, pruning her roses for her while she rocked in the porch swing, filling her kitchen with flowers, and all pouring out their love for Rita.  

 

 

She was pain-free to the end, and finally, in the quiet of evening, slipped peacefully away on an entirely new journey, with husband Chris, son Lewis, daughter Sara, and cousin Donna all holding her.

 

 

Rita Faye Wuehrmann - July 21, 1946 to May 7, 2026.

Bon Voyage...