Posted by
AudiR10TDI on Tuesday, August 05, 2008 1:08:23 PM
Syracuse NY (August 5, 2008) --Saturday morning while I was up to watch F1 qualifying, Mama called me to tell me that Daddy had had a very bad few days, and that at night he was trying to climb out of bed and falling and then not able to get up or help her and my sister (whichever one was spending the night) get him back into bed again. Finally they had to call the EMT who sent three burly men and they righted the situation. Mama wanted my opinion as to whether or not it was time to get Daddy into the hospice where he could be cared for 24/7 by people who knew how to handle these episodes. During the day he is fine but at night, and my sister confirmed, he seemed to turn into someone else.
A friend of mine who has been adopted as an unofficial brother spent the weekend and phoned me this morning to tell me that he thinks Daddy has panic attacks at night and that helps to exacerbate the loss of oxygen to the brain and causes him to not know what he is doing. My friend was able to calm him by reading to him and talking to him, but he said it took all his strength even to help him sit up against his pillows.
Mama was sure we would think her a terrible person for not being able to cope anymore, but she is nearly 81 and a small woman and is at the point of collapse herself. Clearly the time had come.
The hospice is a wonderful place run by the Franciscan sisters and everyone speaks glowingly of it. They take only 18 guests maximum and people are admitted on the basis of need and not strictly according to a waiting list. Being an ardent Catholic, I began a novena to St. Jude Sunday (patron saint of desperate and hopeless situations) begging him to use his influence to get Daddy a bed at Francis House. Yesterday afternoon my sister phoned and said that Daddy would be transferred there today. Mama will have the help and support of one sister as she makes him comfortable there, and the other lives 10 minutes from the hospice and has promised to visit him every night. He will have his own phone and as soon as I have the number I will call him; I've already sent him a card and urged my friends and relations to do the same.
Death comes to us all one day. I am one of the few people my age that I know who still has two living parents, so I have escaped this knowledge for a long time. Now it is here.
Please keep us in your prayers. It is going to be a tough few months around our homesteads.