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How do we let a mother go?
How do we say …I’m ready now.
How can we ever have a clue of what that really means?
And, all of a sudden
That moment is upon us, and there is no turning back.
We know what grief is….the things undone….the empty spaces……
Waves and waves of conflicting emotions.
But there is peace too.
Here is an open question for everyone, how do you say goodbye.
A friend’s mother is in hospice, partly the result of age, and partly the result of several diseases she failed to manage properly catching up with her.
My friend flew her twenty-something daughter in for the week so that she could see her grandmother before she passed. At the first of the week my friend’s mother was still occasionally coherent and aware. By the end of the week she was out of it, and sleeping most of the time.
The three of us went to visit her on the Saturday before the daughter had to fly back out on Sunday. It was more than a little sad as the grandmother was only there physically. The granddaughter knew that this would in all likelihood be the last time she saw her grandmother alive.
We stayed about two hours. The granddaughter tried to feed the grandmother who was not interested. Some attempts were made at communication, but those essentially failed. Both mother and daughter were crying off and on. Towards the end the granddaughter just hugged her grandmother and stroked her.
I went out a little before the other two to give them some time alone. The granddaughter came out first and asked me, “How do you say goodbye to some one?” I took a minute to answer as I was a little choked up myself. All I could muster was a lame comment about “giving them positive energy and remembering the good times.” I do not imagine it satisfied the daughter. It did not satisfy me.
I’ve been thinking about it, and I still not sure I have a good answer. How do you say goodbye to someone?
I was visiting with a relative the other day who was about to retire from a state job, but would not be old enough for Medicare. It was explained to me that he could continue his insurance from the state for $500 a month. Now that is a lot of money, but almost seems cheap in today’s health care market.
A little math will tell you that $500 a month is $6,000 a year. Next add Continue reading “It Is Time We Linked Arms”
Rules for Time Travel
Physicist Discovers How to Teleport Energy
Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser available @ Amazon.com
The whole time I was reading this book I kept picturing Ray Kroc (the founding father of McDonalds) as played by Gene Wilder screaming, “It’s alive, it’s alive.”
Unlike Young Frankenstein there is nothing humorous or entertaining about the monster that has been unleashed on the American consumer and that is rapidly spreading to the rest of the world. This monster is fast food.
Fast Food was on the New York Times bestseller list for two years. It has been translated into at least 20 languages. There is a good reason for this. Continue reading “Before you eat another Big Mac…”
Humans are going to play games and humans are going to fight. It is in our DNA. It is in our memes. Males are especially prone to these activities. There are a few sports that exist mainly because other folks will pay to watch them; football and boxing come to mind.
One of the reasons that I quit watching football was the level of violence. It is the same with boxing. I understand the attraction, but for me at least, it is appealing to baser part of a human. In my mind there is a real question of ethics when we pay to watch violence. I try to avoid such entertainment, and for the most part I do. Continue reading “More Churches Promote Martial Arts to Reach Young Men”
My grandmother had an old milk cow she called Ole Heart. Ole Heart helped my grandmother make ends meet. She would sell excess milk and butter to various folks around town that preferred their milk straight from the cow rather than the supermarket. She would get a calf from Ole Heart once a year that she raised for beef and put in her freezer. She and the cow had been together many years.
During the day Ole Heart roamed Continue reading “A Bit of Wisdom from Ole Heart”
Karol was a tall, somewhat overweight Jewish woman with a pouty lower lip. She had been attractive in her younger days, but age had definitely come to visit.
She was married, but as far as day to day living she was essentially single. Her lifelong spouse had Alzheimer’s disease and he had been in a nursing home for many years. He did not know Karol, or anyone else for that matter. Nevertheless, Karol would visit him regularly, almost daily. It was a large part of her social life. Not her husband per se, Continue reading “Smack Down at Our Lady of Salvation Bingo Emporium”