My beloved mom passed into eternal life on Sunday morning at 7:30 am (really 6:44 am, but we had to wait for the hospice nurse to arrived to call the time of death officially). She went from walking and talking on Monday to being bed-bound on by Wednesday and then sleeping until the end.
Mom developed some spasmatic jerking of her left side arm and leg in December and we have been working with her doctors to determine a cause. In Feb she had an MRI that seemed to show brain lesions, and in March, the CT scan confirmed this information. Her oncologist told us on Monday to go home and spend time together, make memories, work on her bucket list. She also told us we had at most 2 months. Tuesday the priest came out and gave mom last rites. I think this gave mom permission to let go. Wednesday she could not get out of bed and sleep until 6 pm, she was up for 30 minutes and went back to bed. She never left her bed after that. My sister, brother and brother-in-law came over Friday and were here pretty much around the clock from that point on. Saturday night her breathing changed and we all were with her. At 4:30 am, I went in to sleep for a little while (having been up almost 24 hours straight) and I woke up at 6 am. Mom passed peacefully at 6:44 surrounded by her kids. We called the nurse and she came out and confirmed mom had passed, she called the county and called the funeral home. Mom's funeral will be Saturday, 09Apr.
She has been my best friend since I was in high school. i remember my English class received free tickets to the movies and I took my mom- because she never got to do fun things like go to the movies with my dad. She was my biggest supporter- she encouraged me to go to college, try new things, and supported me 1000% when I said I was adopting a childing. There was only one time when she did not want to me do something- I took a job in Louisville KY and she did not want me to go. She apologies later that she told me not to go because she was loosing the person who she could talk to because my dad isolated her so much. We made up and I took her so many places with me. She and I traveled to Guatemala, Chicago, Indianapolis, and around Cincinnati.
The pandemic robbed us of time to together doing things like visiting the zoo, seeing the butterfly show, taking garden tours, just going shopping, and having time away from my dad. In the end, I think the pandemic made her Alzheimer's worse because we could not leave the house.
It has been my honor to be her caregiver over the last 2 years. While it has been a lot of work, a lot of stress, I would not change it. I will forever miss my mom.
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