Vicki's Final Arrangements

Today, Vicki's father (Olin Bullock) and I completed final arrangements for Vicki. We posted this information so that those of you who are able and wish to participate will have adequate advance notice.

Friends may call at the ADAMS-GREEN FUNERAL HOME, 721 Elden Street Herndon, VA on Friday, September 15, between 6 and 9 p.m.

Internment will be held at the CHESTNUT GROVE CEMETERY in Herndon, at 1 p.m. on Saturday, 16 September.

A celebration of life service will be held at SOUTHVIEW BAPTIST CHURCH, 2620 Reston Parkway, Herndon, VA at 7 p.m. on Saturday, September 16.

The family requests in lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to The Vicki B. Sartorius Memorial Fund, Southview Baptist Church, 2620 Reston Parkway, Herndon, VA 20171-2559.

For those of you from outside the Washington, DC metropolitan area who plan to attend Vicki's funeral, I have included some links that may provide useful information:

If you are flying to Washington you will want to fly into Washington-Dulles International Airport (IAD), which is just a few minutes from our house. You will need to rent a car at the airport. See any of the major rental car company web sites to rent your vehicle.

Herndon has many moderately priced hotels. I have included some that are very close to the funeral home, cemetery and church.
Hawthorne Suites Herndon
Spring Hill Suites Herndon
Residence Inn Herndon-Reston by Marriott
Embassy Suites Dulles Airport
Courtyard by Marriott Herndon-Reston

Vicki Bullock Sartorius - April 27th, 1962 - September 8th, 2006

After a long, valiant struggle with bile duct cancer, Vicki died peacefully at home at 12:32 a.m. on Friday morning, September 8, 2006. By God's grace and His power our Lord Jesus Christ rescued Vicki from her suffering. He has restored her to live for eternity in His heaven.

"But the fact is that Christ has been raised from the dead. He has become the first of a great harvest of those who will be raised to life again." (1 Corinthians 15:20)

Once again, I thank each of you who supported our family through these past years of struggle. You have richly blessed our family with your gift of prayer, encouragement, time, meals, and friendship.

I will post memorial service and burial arrangements on this web site when I can confirm the times and dates. Earlier this week I wrote a short biography/obituary to send to the newspapers. I will post it now so you can read it here first:

Vicki was born April 27, 1962 in Maryville, TN. In her early years her family moved to Salisbury, NC and finally settled in Florence, SC where Vicki attended West Florence High School, class of 1980. She then attended Furman University in Greenville, SC, and in 1984, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish.

After graduation, Vicki accepted a position as a Christian missionary with the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board. In this role she was assigned to the staff of Columbia Baptist Church in Falls Church, VA where she served for two years as a missionary to the various foreign embassies and consulates in Washington, DC.

Following her service as a missionary, Vicki accepted a position with the Meetings and Expositions Department of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) in Alexandria, VA. For the next seven years she coordinated annual and semi annual meetings and national and international conventions throughout the US and Canada on behalf of the Association. By the time she resigned from APTA in 1995 she was the director for exposition services.

In late-1995, following the birth of her second daughter, Vicki began her career as a stay-at-home mom and followed her life-long love of music by becoming a part-time piano teacher. As a piano teacher, she focused on the development of beginner music and piano fundamentals in pre-teen children. She taught piano in her home in association with the Fairfax-Loudon Music Fellowship (FLMF), where she also served for a period as the treasurer. She continued in this endeavor for 10 years, until in early 2006 she became too weak from the ravages of cancer to continue.

Vicki expressed her love for children throughout her entire adult life. She participated in, and usually led, various children’s missionary education programs and Vacation Bible School programs at Columbia Baptist Church, and later at Southview Baptist Church in Reston, VA.

For most who knew Vicki, the word gracious captures her personality. She always greeted people with a smile, striving to encourage others and build consensus. She lived a beautiful, but all too short, life. Before she went home to the Lord, she spoke of her only regret: she would no longer be able to help in the lives of her daughters and students. But she will remain in our hearts forever. Her spirit will carry us until we see her again in heaven.

Vicki Entering Life's Final Stages

Vicki entered into life's final stages over the past several days, according to nurses from Capital Hospice. She has shown multiple signs of the end of life processes such as an inability to eat or drink, and an inability to communicate. These signs have developed progressively and rapidly. The Hospice nurses tell us she could be in the last day or few days of her life. As you can imagine cancer has devasted all of us. Even though Vicki has fought this disease for neary three years, we could never prepare for such a demise.

Today the Hospice delivered a hospital bed and oxygen to make Vicki as comfortable as possible. We disassembled our queen-size bed and moved it out of the bedroom, and replaced it with the adjustable hospital bed. We also have an oxygen machine that connects to tubes and supplies Vicki with support for her breathing. Based on the directions from the Hospice doctors and nurses, we have discontinued all of Vicki's earlier medications. She now simply takes a liquid pain medication. Each of us have taken time to spend our alone time with Vicki. At this point she is non-responsive, however, her hearing will shut down last so we still speak to her.

Thanks to our good friend Jim and several other close friends we finalized plans for cemetery plots, funeral and memorial services, etc. Many, many other friends have helped us in so many ways that we cannot even count them. Our family continues to offer our thanks for such a wonderful community of friends and neighbors.

I took the photo of Vicki above on our honeymoon in April 1989. We married at Vicki's home church in Florence, SC on April 8th, 1989 and then took a week-long vacation at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC.

Vicki's in Hospice Care

Yesterday afternoon I decided to place Vicki in the care of Capital Hospice. The people we met with from the Hospice seemed to be quite knowledgeable and caring. We seek to make Vicki as comfortable as possible in these last days, and hopefully, allow her to spend her time with friends and family in the comfort of her own room.