Sadness

Today one of my close friends, Red, is having to make the most difficult choice that any child ever has to make. She has to turn off the ventilator that is supporting her mom's life. This brings back some very hard memories for me of my dad. While we didn't have to turn off his vent it was still hard hearing from over 900miles away that my dad had passed. He fought for over 8yrs to stay with us. He was alive to see my nieces and nephews be born, to see me graduate from high school, and to see me get married and have a baby of my own. He was in and out of the hospital so much of my life that I became numb to it and just accepted it as how things were. I cherish those years with him. The last time I saw him was a week before he passed. He was put in the hospital for the last time and never came out. I told him when I had to fly back to bring my son home because he was getting sick and the hubby was ETSing out of the military(so we also had to pack up), and that I would see him in a week when I moved back home and he could get to see his grandson anytime he wanted. Little did I know that would be the last conversation that I would have with him. I got the call a few days later that he had taken a turn for the worse and his organs had began to shut down on him and he just went to sleep and never woke back up. He had changed his orders to a DNR and was ready to begin his journey with God. He knew that it was his last time in that hospital.
20 months later I had to watch my mother die from cancer. I got to sit with her during the day at the hospital in her last few days. The morphine pretty much kept her out of it and she would talk to other relatives that had long since passed. But the hardest part was standing there with all our family watching her take her last breathe. With my dad it was one of those expected things since he had been sick for so many years, but with my mom it took all of a month for her Cancer to come back and the chemo to rip through her body and take her life.
Red's mom, Kitty, has esophageal cancer. Kitty was the funniest little Irish woman I have ever known. She will be sadly missed. I'm glad that I was able hang out with her a little over a year ago when they had to run from Hurricane Ike. She could make us all laugh no matter what was going on. It's comforting that Kitty will be surrounded by loved ones as she passes from this life to the next. God Speed Kitty! We will miss you!