I believe things happen for a reason. Right now I can't think of any reason but I am hoping there is one. Life has been one curve ball after another.
1st - We admitted FIL into hospice August 20th after 3 days of total unconsciousness. We learned his heart was still functioning around 20% capacity but he was in total renal failure. Dialysis was not an option. He would not respond and flunked the swallowing test twice. So we all made the decision to admit him to hospice. My husband and I signed the paperwork and I arranged his transfer from the hospital for the next morning via ambulance back to his dementia home. We thought we would be having his funeral the following Monday for our 35th wedding anniversary. Betting is not our forte :)
I swear someone sprinkled fairy dust on him during his transfer. The man I had spent 3 days with at the hospital was not the man I saw in a picture taken Thursday afternoon at his house. That picture showed a man who was sitting up in a wheelchair, eating dinner. Fully awake and conscious and talking.
He had good days and bad days and in the last few weeks there were more bad days than good days. We got a call Monday the 27th that he had lapsed back into a coma like state. We rushed out to see him. Taking a look at him, I knew it would be just a matter of days. We were out there for MIL daily also working every day. Thursday the 30th we got a call that it was any time. We drove back out after re-arranging patients. We stayed until almost 9p, then took MIL home, drove back home picking up a pizza on the way. We had just finished eating the pizza when we got the call he had died. We drove back out, taking MIL to see him to say her final good-byes. Yes, I allowed her to crawl into bed with him. She needed that closure and at this point after being married 66 years, I felt it was her right. We stayed to midnight and took MIL home, then went back to the home to wait for the hospice nurse to pronounce him, and then waited for the funeral home to pick him up. I think we finally got home between 3-4 am. BIL called us and stated he had scheduled for us to make all the arrangements at 9 the next morning. Hubs and I looked at each other and said absolutely no way and changed it to 11. We were still late but we had to have some sleep. BIL had only been there once that week and for a few hours. We had been splitting what little time we had to be there for MIL and FIL. We were exhausted.
The funeral was Monday, October 31st. It was a very fitting day for a generous man. He was more of a father to me than my own ever thought of being. He loved me and never hesitated to tell me. He encouraged me and trusted me - things my own father never did. I will really miss him.
#2 FIL's funeral was not the first the month of October for us. We lost our beloved 5 year old cat Trouble earlier in the month. We also lost a friend who dropped dead of a heart attack at 58, a cousin who died at age 55, and a friend who couldn't bear life anymore and took his own life at the age of 64. We also lost our son-in-law's grandfather early in the month. So if things come in 3's, I figure we have one more to go.
It has been a month of testing our faith in God. There were 2 other things that happened that I will address in another post.
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