A Photo A Day

By: 1year365photos

Dec 14 2011

Category: Uncategorized

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I just spoke to Mum on the phone.  Grandad has been in and out of hospital for weeks.  In for a few weeks, home for a few days until he collapses, in for a few more weeks…

Yesterday he got up, had a shower with a caregiver who comes and helps him, had a shave, brushed his teeth, and died.

The ambulance came.  Gran was distraught.  He then coughed, and took a deep breath.  He opened his eyes, and said “oh God.  I wanted to be in the morgue.”

That comment, from someone who is always so full of life, optimistic and positive, breaks my heart.

He’s back in hospital.  Where they’re monitoring his fluid levels and his kidney function and his muscle spasms in his legs and his lungs.

Mum is looking into rest homes for him, should he be released from hospital again.

I pray that he struggles until January 15th, for purely selfish reasons.  I’ll be home then, and with my family.  I don’t know how things will be if I’m over here, and they’re all there when it happens.

For him, though, I hope it happens soon.  Almost 88 years old.  I’ve learned a lot about his life over these last few months.  And for that, I’m grateful.  If I can live a life as full and exciting and rich and love-filled, I’ll be ready to go at 88 as well.

A dying man needs to die, as a sleepy man needs to sleep, and there comes a time when it is wrong, as well as useless, to resist.  - Stewart Alsop.