It Was On Friday
Well Barbara, it was on Friday, June 18th, that your suffering and the emaciation of your body came to it's merciful end. The cancer had ravaged you so completely that what once was a buxom, 280 pound, vivacious woman, had become an 85 pound, sliver of a body that I barely recognized as you. But I know it WAS you. And although you could not speak, and you could not see, you would not let go. For 22 days, honey, I tried to feed you, and you would not eat. I tried to give you water, but you would not drink. But you could hear me. The hospice nurses told me you could, and I believed them. So every night, before I went to sleep, I would hold your hand, tell you that it was O.K. for you to go, and kiss you good night, my tear drop landing on your cheek. I would go up to my bed, and Sparky would take my place by your side. After a fitful rest, I would get up and go to you. You had not moved. You lay there breathing slowly, yet continually. And another day began just as the previous one had ended. Throughout each and every day, your friend and neighbor, Debbie, and your Brother, Phil, would stay with us, and we were helpless to do any thing at all for you, save keep you clean, cool, and full of morphine.
Your hospice Nurse, Nancy, had just left after praying for you and singing softly to you. She was surely an Angel sent from God Himself, helping to ease your passage from Earth to Heaven. What would I have done without her? How could I have managed? Her compassion and her love for you was nothing short of a Godsend to us all. I remember at 2:30 that Friday afternoon I was standing by your side, just watching you breath so very slowly. Each time your tiny chest would rise, I knew you were still there. When you began to breath quickly, I knew your time was near, yet I was not afraid. I remember getting Debbie up from the couch where she had been resting. I asked her to go get Phil. The three of us and Sparky stood quietly by your side. I held your hand.
Moments that seemed like hours later, when your breathing stopped, we were all frozen in time. It was as if I could feel your spirit lingering in the air above you. Then you were gone. He had finally made your place in Heaven, and you were gone.
I called Nancy with the news of your passing and she came right back to us to arrange for the "business" of death. She called the mortuary and the coroner. The Southern California traffic was heavy on that late Friday afternoon and it was not until 6:30 that evening when Fernando from the mortuary knocked on the door. This man was as unobtrusive as one could imagine. He ever so quiety and respectfully wheeled the gurney into our living room and by the bed there where your lifeless body lay. He softly asked me if I needed another moment alone with you. I told him I did not. With the grace of a saint, he folded the sheet around you, and in his strong hands, he lifted you onto the gurney. And when I looked at your bed, you were gone but there he had left a single red, long stemmed rose where you had been. And after 22 years, I was all alone again. Then the tears began. Sometimes it feels like it was only yesterday, yet it will be three months tomorrow since you left. And it seems like a very, very long time ago all the same......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcXqujmJF4c
Your hospice Nurse, Nancy, had just left after praying for you and singing softly to you. She was surely an Angel sent from God Himself, helping to ease your passage from Earth to Heaven. What would I have done without her? How could I have managed? Her compassion and her love for you was nothing short of a Godsend to us all. I remember at 2:30 that Friday afternoon I was standing by your side, just watching you breath so very slowly. Each time your tiny chest would rise, I knew you were still there. When you began to breath quickly, I knew your time was near, yet I was not afraid. I remember getting Debbie up from the couch where she had been resting. I asked her to go get Phil. The three of us and Sparky stood quietly by your side. I held your hand.
Moments that seemed like hours later, when your breathing stopped, we were all frozen in time. It was as if I could feel your spirit lingering in the air above you. Then you were gone. He had finally made your place in Heaven, and you were gone.
I called Nancy with the news of your passing and she came right back to us to arrange for the "business" of death. She called the mortuary and the coroner. The Southern California traffic was heavy on that late Friday afternoon and it was not until 6:30 that evening when Fernando from the mortuary knocked on the door. This man was as unobtrusive as one could imagine. He ever so quiety and respectfully wheeled the gurney into our living room and by the bed there where your lifeless body lay. He softly asked me if I needed another moment alone with you. I told him I did not. With the grace of a saint, he folded the sheet around you, and in his strong hands, he lifted you onto the gurney. And when I looked at your bed, you were gone but there he had left a single red, long stemmed rose where you had been. And after 22 years, I was all alone again. Then the tears began. Sometimes it feels like it was only yesterday, yet it will be three months tomorrow since you left. And it seems like a very, very long time ago all the same......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcXqujmJF4c
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