The Summer

So thankful that our mom is healthy at this point in her life. These last two years have been a struggle for her as she’s had multiple hospitalizations and surgeries all while watching over our dad, who was becoming increasingly confused in addition to his COPD which left him breathless much of the time. As so many know already – one or both of them has been hospitalized every week since April. They had one week at home together before Joe* [our dad] went back into the hospital in mid-July. The doctors told us his chance of recovery was slim and he had a very lucid conversation with his doctor about end-of-life issues and what he wanted / didn’t want. We felt confident in these decisions – why prolong death when we’re secure in our beliefs? He went to rehab for a couple of weeks and his health continued to deteriorate and so he was back in the hospital at the end of August. There came a moment last week when the on-call doctor was pushing for us to put a tube in and we knew we would be faced with this decision soon. [And quite honestly – our confidence was not as strong when it came right to it -] When his doctor returned he never mentioned it to us [I think in part bc he knew Joe’s wishes, and in part bc he knew Joe couldn’t survive the surgery to do it.] And so, Joe passed peacefully to be with the Lord on Wednesday.

*Who really knows why we call our daddy ‘Joe’ – it’s his name, sure, and everyone assures us that when Lorna was born they tried to teach her to call him ‘daddy’, but she insisted on ‘Joe’ – I think in part bc she spent a great deal of time with his family as a toddler and heard him called ‘Joe’ more than any other name. So as Joey and I came along – ‘Joe’ it was and has always been.