The first hour he described every single detail of exactly what happened. They went on a little trip on Tuesday, January 3rd in their camper, drove all night and stopped at an RV park at around 10am in Portsite, AZ. By the time they get there she is already starting to have asthma. They went to sleep and both woke up after dark.
They didn't really like Portsite so that evening they said let's go to Laughlin. Her asthma was getting worse and he said that they could eat at a resteraunt there so she wouldn't have to cook. They got there around midnight and her asthma was really bad.
He sat with her from midnight till 5am. After 15-20 hours of driving they are very very tired and Romana said, "Look, we're both really tired. We have to go to bed."
Art said, "Are you sure?" because people with asthma have to sit upright so that they can breath.
But she said, "Yeah, I think it's a little better. I can lie down." Art was happy that she suggested they lie down he was thinking hallelujah, the asthma is getting better. They got into bed, he put his arms around her and thanked God as he said he does every day and he said, "I love you."
She said, "I love you so much," and they hugged each other for a little bit and promptly fell asleep.
He didn't get up until 1:30 PM and he said, "Hey hon!" as he did every day because she always got up before him. He said he still says that even now. Hey hon. He got no answer so he got up and went into the living room portion of the RV and there she was, in the middle of the couch, dead. No look of pain or suffering on her face at all. It just looked like she was either sleeping when she went or she passed out and went. But she had been gone for a long time because she was very cold and white.
He touched her and said, "Oh my God...". He ran and got dressed and ran down to the main office of the RV park and told them to call the police and the coronor because his wife was dead. From that moment on he said he went into serious shock. He didn't cry except for when he called her mother and then he didn't cry for 36 hours. He didn't sleep for 36 hours.
The RV park got him a hotel room and he waited for the coronor to arrive from Los Vegas because Laughlin didn't have one so that took some time.
He went on to talk about how he's an emotional person and gave the example of when his cat Abby had a stroke and he held him while Romona drove and he cried like a baby and when Abby died he cried like a baby and how with Romona dying it all seemed so damned final. There was nothing he could do. No last minute rush to the emergency room. Nothing. Nothing to do. She was gone.
After 36 hours he got some sleep and then he went to the funeral home and there, he lost it and had lost it many times after. Over the course of that week he lost 8 pounds. He didn't eat anything except a hamburger and a bowl of cereal.
What happened was that when he went to sleep she got back up pretty quickly. She went into the living room and got out her nebulizer and had used 2 or 3 vials of albuteral. The coronor said that the only remarkable thing about the autopsy was that she had hyper-inflated lungs. The lungs were so large there could be no exchange for air and co2. He also said that it didnt appear that she suffered because she had a relaxed look on her face.
Art asked, "Why in God's name didn't she wake me up!?" and the doctor said that maybe she couldn't. Then he said, "Why didn't she wake me up when she realized she had to get up to get the nebulizer?" But he would never know the answer to that question. But he's having all sorts of tests and screenings done because he wants answers. He wants to know exactly what happened to her.
Then he went on talking about how he's been reacting to her being dead. He said he has dark periods off and on but that the most important thing is that those dark periods don't last forever. The first dark period he went through he didn't think it would even go away. So he got a bottle of vallium and he sat there with it and was very close to swallowing every single pill. The only thing that made him stop was a memory of his wife telling him "You have to play the hand that you're dealt." She was a Catholic and she believed that suicide was a sin so that stopped him.
He talked about how lost he is without her. She did everything. She paid all the bills, did all the shopping, handled all the finances. He said he hadn't written a check in 15 years, he didn't know his own pin numbers, she had paid up on all the bills by over several thousand dollars and he doesn't know if she always did that or if she knew she was going to die and wanted to make it easier on him with the bills.
He said he walks around his property of which he's got two houses and various out-buildings and he talks to her. He said they both have so many keys, they're like janitors. So many remote entry things and so many keys for their security alarms and such. And he told a story how she would go shopping and come through the door with her arms full of bags and she would always drop her keys. He said he would always ride her about that. "Why can't you hold on to your keys? One broken remote entry and we're screwed." So he said he went shopping for the first time in 15 years, came in with his arms full and...drops his keys. He looked up to the sky and said, "Laugh it up."
He said that when they first met they were in debt and broke but they loved each other and that's all they needed. Now they are rich. His radio career has been very very successful, especially with Coast To Coast AM. He said that with that kind of money it allows you to buy yourself just about whatever you want and that they have alot of stuff. They both enjoyed all of that stuff together. But he said that without her he doesn't enjoy any of it anymore. He said that you can sit there looking at a high-def TV together and marvel at how beautiful and neat it looks but now he just stares at it and doesn't care.
The bottom line is that Ramona was his soul-mate by every definition of the word. They were never apart for one single day of their marriage. They were one. Now he's half. He's lost. He's stuck. He said he is determined to carry on and that he needs to stay busy. So as a result he is going to be doing C2C on Saturdays and Sundays from now on. He said that it'll be good to occupy his mind with other things for the duration of a 4 hour show. It'll force his brain to think of the interviews and subjects he talks about on the show instead of wallowing over her. That is exactly what he needs.
It's going to be a long bumpy road for him filled with many dark patches. He already broke down several times during the first hour. There were many long pauses and there was one time that he slammed his fist down on his desk and said, "IT'S ALL SO DAMNED UNFAIR!" I really feel for him and I respect him even more for coming out with this all and being so honest with his grieving process. He's a strong man and it's going to be a rough road for him but he's got a family of litterally millions across the world that listen to the show and we'll all be there for him.
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