Grandmother who got one last trip to Bermuda passes away

Posted at: 06/11/2012 6:13 PM | Updated at: 06/11/2012 7:46 PM
By: Berkeley Brean | WHEC.com

Patti Svika-Buckner, the grandmother with terminal cancer who enjoyed one last trip to Bermuda, passed away Sunday morning.

We learned this from her father Henry late today. 

When Patti spoke to use in mid-May, she knew she only had weeks to live. 

Below is our story with Patti.

Patti Svika-Buckner has just weeks to live. There's nothing doctors can do about her brain cancer. But there was something her family could do to make her happy.

Send her on a final trip to her favorite place in the world - Bermuda. 

Click here to watch Patti talk about knowing that she's dying from cancer.

"I think you go there and you just, it's a happy place," Patti Svika-Buckner said. Bermuda is her favorite place in the world.

Patti looks good and sounds good. But she has a tumor in her brain that doctor's can't do anything about.

"Well it's hard. There's a lot of times I break down and shed a few tears and wish it wasn't me," Patti said ending with a nervous giggle.

Not long after her doctors said her brain cancer returned and she had only weeks to live, Patti's family organized one final trip to Bermuda.

"What's this one here?" I asked as we looked at pictures.
"Feeding fish at the aquarium," Patti said.

She showed us pictures of her trip including one that shows her feeding a huge fish.

"You were successful," I said.
"I came back with all my fingers," Patti said wiggling her fingers in the air and smiling.

Patti was helped by Bermuda's tourism department, it's cancer center and a taxi driver named Michael -- who drove Patti around the country for free.

"It took us away from reality for a little while," Christine Miller, Patti's daughter, said. "It's let us have some happy times and some happy memories."

The vacation was bitter sweet because while Patti loved being in her favorite place in the world one more time, she also knew it would be her last time.

"You just realize that's it. I probably won't do this again," Patti said.
"And how did that make you feel?" I asked.
"Sad. I'd love to go back again. One more time," she said with another nervous giggle.

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