Sunday, April 20, 2008

How to say good-bye

How do you say good-bye to someone who is dying? When they don't want to die, but at the same time they are in so much pain and are so old that it should be there time to go? I mean, really....I don't know how to do that. I've never done it before. The only time someone close to me has died was when I was 7.5 years old and my dad's mom died. However, she died very suddenly and unexpectedly that I never go to say good-bye to her. I went to the funeral. I remember being excited to see my cousins and play with them, and I remember seeing her in the casket and putting a white rose in there....but other than that there was no real goodbye.

Now my mom's mom is not doing so well. She was in the hospital for a long time and is currently in a rest home, and she's not doing so well. In fact, they've brought in a hospice nurse and we're just kind of waiting to see what happens. I went to visit her last night with my mom and grandpa and she talked to me a little bit, my mom said that was the most coherent she had been in 24 hours. I haven't had to deal with death this closely before and it will be interesting to see what happens when she dies. I know there won't really be a funeral per se, that isn't what my grandma wants, but we will all need closure and who knows how that will happen. Death certainly is an interesting aspect of life. I don't think I like dealing with it.

1 comments:

tiburon said...

I wish I had some great answer for you - I am going through something similar with my step dad. I am realizing that he is almost 79 years old and he isn't going to be around forever. I guess we just have to say goodbye and let them know how we feel...

Good luck.