You pick up the pieces and you go on
I went to a staff meeting today to learn about my mom’s prognosis. Not good. They have done all they can for her and are now moving her onto that final resting station – a skilled nursing home – where she gets to live out her final days. I went to visit one of the facilities and although I drove there with a heavy heart, and I have been through many of these places as my mom was director of nursing at many, perhaps even this one, I walked in and experienced a very different feeling than the one I thought I would have.
Yes, it is the final stop for most of the residents but it wasn’t such a bad place. I passed one room where an old man lay in his bed with his daughter (older than me) washing his face, while her brother or husband sat in the chair talking. I passed another where an elderly man lay sleeping while a very frail elderly woman sat near him in a wheel chair.
All around me people were helping other people in their passage. It is Talmudic. This is life, for some of us, the end is lightning fast like my father who surprised us all when he was 62 and never made it to his and my lunch date. My mom’s is more prolonged but she is giving us all time to say our goodbyes and help her with her passage.