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The distinguished thing
Dec. 4th, 2019 12:11 pmAs y'all know, my husband's mother, 83, has been declining; he visited last summer, but she hasn't wanted him to come again "until she's feeling better". We got a call this morning, and the doctors are expecting her to die within a week.
I love her. She's been saying for years that this was older than she ever expected to be, with a strong undertone of "or wanted to". So I got my husband tickets, dropped him off at the airport, and we all wait. I hope she goes easily. I am very fond and proud of her, but the last few years have been a series of unpleasant illnesses: a heart attack, two strokes, one of which took away her speech and reading. She mostly recovered her speech. Then this fall she broke a leg and was moved to her assisted living's health-care center, which she hated. They use the same space for people with dementia and people who have (say) broken a leg or have pneumonia. There are people wandering in and out, she couldn't even go to the bathroom by herself. Her language has been deteriorating from the shock and the unhappiness.
Now she's lethargic and refusing to eat or drink. It's time, but it's still a sorrow. We won't forget her, nor will the many people she helped in her communities. She had a happy marriage, four children she was proud of, and eight beloved grandchildren. A good life, and yet I'm still crying.
I love her. She's been saying for years that this was older than she ever expected to be, with a strong undertone of "or wanted to". So I got my husband tickets, dropped him off at the airport, and we all wait. I hope she goes easily. I am very fond and proud of her, but the last few years have been a series of unpleasant illnesses: a heart attack, two strokes, one of which took away her speech and reading. She mostly recovered her speech. Then this fall she broke a leg and was moved to her assisted living's health-care center, which she hated. They use the same space for people with dementia and people who have (say) broken a leg or have pneumonia. There are people wandering in and out, she couldn't even go to the bathroom by herself. Her language has been deteriorating from the shock and the unhappiness.
Now she's lethargic and refusing to eat or drink. It's time, but it's still a sorrow. We won't forget her, nor will the many people she helped in her communities. She had a happy marriage, four children she was proud of, and eight beloved grandchildren. A good life, and yet I'm still crying.
