It was a year ago today doctors told us we should begin hospice services for Mom; not a day goes by that I don’t think of her...or Deni, our wonderful hospice nurse, the professional and compassionate person who helped us through the slow and painful process of dying.It began six months earlier with a phone call from Dad. "Mother's in the hospital --they found cancer in her colon." In the space of a moment, everything changed. This is how I moved back home with my 86-year old parents in California.
Hospice life is quiet. Days are long, time seems stopped, every moment like the moment before. Nothing can be rushed, it goes on until it is over--Mom in an unfathomable place, withdrawn and other-worldish, heavily drugged to keep her out of pain. As I reflect back on the year, I now fully understand what was given to me. Thank you, Mom, for giving me the opportunity to tend you, still my inner chatter, practice patience and compassion, learn the gift of silence, notice life's small details, and get to know my father as a person.
This is such a touching story and powerful as well. Thanks for sharing a very private part of your life with us all, Margo. We'll never know when we have to go through something like this, and at least for me, it has helped immensely.
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