Note: this is an excerpt from An Ordinary Death: Where Grief and Relief Hold Hands, available from Amazon.com. I have not yet seen Mother this morning, but have just received an email from my brother. He wrote what I had guessed: last night’s stroke means she will no longer be able to take in liquid or food. The last days have arrived. I will be driving down shortly to collect my middle son and family to get them to the... Read more
Note: this is an excerpt from An Ordinary Death: Where Grief and Relief Hold Hands, available from Amazon.com. Last Thursday, September 9, a sense of urgency hit me. There were several legal/financial matters concerning Mother’s estate that my brother and sister and I had been talking about, and I said, “Whatever we need to do, we need to do it NOW. I have a strong feeling something is going to happen next Tuesday.” It made no sense. On that day,... Read more
Note: this is an excerpt from An Ordinary Death: Where Grief and Relief Hold Hands, available from Amazon.com. Mother had an unusual reaction to some medication we gave her last night. This was the first time she had complained of pain, so we gave her a small dose a common pain reliever of hydrocodone and acetaminophen that had been provided by the hospice pharmacy. I assumed it would make her sleepy, but instead she became very, very talkative. More words... Read more
This again reminds my of my frustration that someone can come in and pronounce my mother "fine and alert" mentally when we who know her know that she is missing seven beats out of eight. It's just that her eighth beat is still so powerful that only those who know her are aware of the lost seven before it. Read more
Note: this is an excerpt from An Ordinary Death: Where Grief and Relief Hold Hands, available from Amazon.com. Below is an article I wrote about my mother for Mother’s Day, 2007. For those of you who are being so supportive of me and our family through these times, I thought it might help if you had a better picture of this unique woman. The Rev. Dr. Christy Thomas Daughter 214-418-9541 [email protected] A couple of years ago, I was catching... Read more
Note: this is an excerpt from An Ordinary Death: Where Grief and Relief Hold Hands, available from Amazon.com. After seeing what I had posted earlier today, an attorney friend of mine got in touch with me to inquire which hospice organization we are using. I have deliberately not used the name of that particular hospice as I believed that it was not fair to give them bad publicity without giving some time to rectify what had happened. This good and... Read more
Note: this is an excerpt from An Ordinary Death: Where Grief and Relief Hold Hands, available from Amazon.com. Today is Wednesday, September 8, Day Five of Hospice. At least I think it is. I have already lost track of days and dates. I am in a state of complete exhaustion. Yesterday, after a really challenging night with mother, I came back to Krum in the middle of the afternoon. How I even made the 50 mile drive is beyond me.... Read more
Note: this is an excerpt from An Ordinary Death: Where Grief and Relief Hold Hands, available from Amazon.com. If my mother knew what I was doing, she would have my hide. On my previous post about this end of life time with my mother, I noted that I had hit the bonanza when I found a file of letters she had written. This find spurred me to do start digging deeper into her stashes of papers. Stashes, stacks, files, folders,... Read more
Note: this is an excerpt from An Ordinary Death: Where Grief and Relief Hold Hands, available from Amazon.com. I was sitting at my messy desk Friday trying to clean it. My Christian Education Director, Kristi, came in and sympathized with the mess. I told her, “It has always been my mother’s job to have the paperwork mess. As long as she did that, I could stay somewhat organized. But now since her stroke, she’s not fulfilling her part of the... Read more
Note: this is an excerpt from An Ordinary Death: Where Grief and Relief Hold Hands, available from Amazon.com. It is Thursday afternoon, not quite three weeks since this saga with my mother started when she was found after suffering her series of stokes that felled her. My sister and I are back in the hospital with my mother again. This time, we are at Methodist Richardson, and the experience here stands in stark contrast to the experience at Medical City.... Read more
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