Dying

It’s not something you ever expect but it happens. People die. Friends, family members, and others are around but it’s the spouses, parents and immediate families who go through everything. I believe hospice is a way to help family members with terminal illnesses die with dignity. Even now, two years later, I thank the people from doctors to nurses, volunteers, pain specialists, bathers for making my mother’s last two weeks a time to be with her family. She drifted in and out of consciouness and didn’t say much.

Whatever issues we had as mother and daughter I’m still dealing with, but I was there. People talk about death panels. My mother knew her fate was sealed when she chose hospice over yet another surgery. No-one asked her to do so.

All her children gathered at her side from over the US to be there her final days. Of course they were sad days but also some good days when she could say a word or two. There’s a dear friend I’ve known for many years whose mother is in hospice now. Let her tell you things. Write them down, as this is your history.

One has to go through it but losing a loved one often changes a life, I’m trying to explain it but can not do so. And I hope you have years before you must experience the loss of a loved one. I’d like to have the courage that comes from volunteering with hospice but do not and am looking for a new volunteer opporunity that will let me use my talents to better society. Cheers, Dee