Closing Day T - 0

It is Halloween and closing day on our house.  I do not even want to go into all the details of this excruciating day.  We awoke around 6:45 to the news that Gene's 99 years old mom was in the hospital.  We still had stuff to get out of the house we were closing on at 10:00 AM.

To sum up this final day of count down is to say God has a plan for all our lives.  We have plans for our lives.  Some days the plans are not in sync.  This was one of those days.  The closing on the house was completed.  By the grace of the buyers we were given additional time to finish packing up the few items left at the house.  Wonderful friends, neighbors and cousins helped accomplish the tasks at hand.

Our evening and night are spent in the hospital with Gene's Mom.  Gene and by telephone with his brother make the excruciating decision to take no further steps to prolong their mother's life.  At 3 in the afternoon she was moved to a palliative care routine.  This simply means letting nature take its course while keeping the person as comfortable as possible.  The mission on keeping the patient comfortable with no visible signs of pain like frowning and groaning was accomplished.

Earlier on the Halloween day Edna said to Gene that he was her oldest boy.  She did not know his name.  She asked where Dad was.  Dad is how she referred to Gene's father.  Gene asked if she wanted to find Dad and she smiled yes.  Then watch for him was the gist of Gene's response.  Later in the day Gene leaned over to speak to Mom.  She raised her arm over his back and began to caress her baby boy and he caressed her.  This lasted for several minutes.  Edna was mouthing inaudible words.  Lip movements resembled I love you and bye.  But we were not positive.

Last embrace

On Thursday morning Edna was initially brought into the emergency room.  From there she was transferred to the the 3rd floor surgical wing.  The staff did not expect her to last through the day.  But she was still with us a 6 AM on Nov. 1.  And the sunrise was beautiful.

Sunrise viewed from Edna's 3rd floor room

By 7 AM the staff was told to move Edna to the hospice floor of the hospital for the remainder of her time which could be days. The hospice unit was located on the 7th floor.  The area on the 7th floor through which we would travel with Edna in the bed was the area where Gene's Dad had passed away in 2005.

The little caravan of two nurses, Gene, me and Edna in the hospital bed twisted through the maze of halls.  We joked about leaving crumbs so we would not get lost.  We arrived at the new room and the transition of responsibilities between nursing staff began.  I snapped a couple of pictures out the window.

As I turned back to the bed I noted to the nurses, "She is not breathing."  The bed was hastily rolled into place.  The nurse retrieved a stethoscope and checked for sounds.  She then said something like we are sorry for your loss.  Edna had lasted until 8:31 AM on All Saints Day, Nov. 1.  She was 99 years 13 days old.

I turned to Gene and said, "Dad was waiting on her up here and they are together again."  He agreed and we collapsed in each other arms in sobs.  We believe with all our hearts that Dad and Mom found each other that morning.  God surrounds us with angels both visible and invisible.  Each is reaching out to help those they are sent to care for along the way.  May we each recognize the angels in our lives.  Be they friends, family, health professionals or even grumpy folks that are in a hurry.  Each could be sent to give us just what is needed.

And when I started the T - countdown I guess God already knew that to which I was really counting without my knowing.