Olympus-OM
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [OM] The end of a journey

Subject: Re: [OM] The end of a journey
From: "philippe.amard" <philippe.amard@xxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2014 08:23:48 +0100
Sorry to read this and she looked like a very nice lady indeed.

My condeleances to your family.

Philippe


Le 2 févr. 14 à 22:50, Paul Braun a écrit :

> I meant to post this earlier, but this past week has been simply  
> insane.
>
> My wife's mother, who was 95, had been in the hospital for about a
> week-and-a-half due to a severe systemic infection.  She had been on
> some antibiotics, but what we didn't realize is that it was slowly
> getting worse and that, at 95, your body really just isn't equipped to
> fight back that much.  And the hospital stay really wasn't doing much.
> A week ago Monday, we made the decision to have her transferred to the
> hospice center here in town to allow her to rest comfortably without  
> all
> of the confusion of being in a hospital. She finally passed away this
> past Thursday.
>
> The end wasn't very pleasant, even with the medications that the  
> hospice
> angels were giving her.
>
> Adrienne was fiercely loyal to her family.  But to others, she was a
> lifelong non-social person.  We tried to get her to take a roommate at
> the assisted-living facility, but she was having none of that. Guess  
> it
> was too much to hope that she'd change after 90-some years....
>
> We just finished emptying out her apartment.  The thing that my wife  
> and
> I find both hilarious and bewildering is that every time we'd go see  
> her
> or talk to her on the phone, she'd complain about the conditions and
> that she needed to get out of there ASAP. (I know that some
> assisted-living places are, in fact, bad news.  But this place was
> brand-new, clean, comfortable, and all of the help were extremely
> nice).  But as we were carrying her stuff out, everyone we met told us
> how much they loved Adrienne and how she always asked how they were
> doing or how their family was...  It's like there was "Mom while we're
> here" and "Mom when we're not".
>
> We were very concerned even at the end - at the hospital, the  
> evaluated
> her and said that yes, she definitely qualified for hospice care and
> they didn't think she'd last more than three or four days.  But she  
> kept
> hanging in there.  Even this past Monday, while they were installing  
> our
> furnace, the VNA called and told my wife if she wanted to say goodbye,
> that now was the time.  Yet, she hung in there.  The way Medicare  
> works,
> when you go into hospice, they will pay 100% up to 10 days, after  
> that,
> you have the choice to bring her home and get home hospice care, or  
> pay
> on your own at $550 a day.  Thursday was the 10th day.  It's almost  
> like
> she was just hanging in to maximize her Medicare benefits....
>
> This photo, which some of you may remember, was taken last year when  
> we
> took her out for Mothers' Day dinner.  At this point, she was 94.
>
> She was pretty lucid and feisty almost up to the end (we took her back
> to the seafood place for her birthday in December), but she had  
> declined
> pretty rapidly in the past year.  She'd been through several major
> losses in her life, including her parents (her mom died was living  
> with
> them when the house burned and her mother died in the fire), her  
> brother
> sometime after Sheri and I were married, her husband back in 1981 or  
> 82,
> and my brother-in-law, her baby boy, two years ago.  I think Terry's
> death really took a lot of the wind out of her sails.
>
> So now, we sort the estate out ( there wasn't much left at the end)  
> and
> continue to fight the VA for the housing benefits she qualified for  
> but
> they have been denying us for the past two years.  For crying out  
> loud,
> she was mid-90's, not well, and the widow of a WWII veteran.  She
> qualified for the money.
>
> And then we move on with life.  Both Sheri and I are completely out of
> parents at this point.  Quite frankly, I've had enough death in my  
> life
> in the past year.  I really need a break.
>
> http://zone-10.com/tope2/main.php?g2_itemId=5293
>
> -- 
>
>
>
> Paul Braun
> Certified Music Junkie
> Valparaiso, IN
>
>
> "It's such a fine line between stupid, and clever." - David St.  
> Hubbins
>
> "Music washes from the soul the dust of everyday life" - Harlan Howard
>
> -- 
> _________________________________________________________________
> Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
> Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
> Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/

One sees clearly only with the heart. What is essential is invisible  
to the eye. Antoine de Saint Exupéry in Le Petit Prince.
NO ARCHIVE




-- 
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Sponsored by Tako
Impressum | Datenschutz