had a conversation recently with someone about my mom…

we weren’t very close as I grew up… she spent a lot of time in hospital and was on Valium for years which made her confused and disconnected…

she decided to stop taking the drugs when I was about sixteen and she quit cold turkey… not the way most people would stop, but she had made up her mind… it made a huge difference for all of us…

my dad died when the girls were eight and ten, and within months she was sick… eventually they discovered esophageal cancer and moved her to a palliative care facility which was across town from where she, and we, lived…

for four months I spent every day with her… we had the chance to work through all our differences and become good friends… at that time I was a stay-at-home mom and so was able to spend the time…

it was horrible and wonderful… not often does the opportunity come to spend such quality time with another person…

dying slowly is hard on everyone, the person who is dying and all those connected with them… it was a privilege to take that journey with her and know that we had sorted through all our difficulties… there was nothing left unsaid…

over the years George and I have supported a number of other family and friends as they left us slowly and as difficult as his death was, I was thankful that he didn’t go through days, weeks, months of pain and suffering…

if I think back, I can remember the last day, when I climbed into her bed and held her during the last hours… but mainly I remember the good times and how much she loved our girls…

she would have loved all our boys, old and young…