Tabs

Friday, September 11, 2015

A Time for Remembering

At 08:19 on the 9th of September, my Mother passed away, just five days short of her 91st birthday.  She was still living on her own, and still drove her own car, and as she reminded me not long ago, still had all her own teeth.  Mom had fainted in her home, and was not found for some time.  No bones were broken, which attests to her always drinking a glass of milk a day, building up the Calcium in my bones, as she would say.  In the hospital she was recovering from dehydration, and damage to her kidneys (brought on by lying on the floor so long before being found), and although she had suffered three or four micro strokes while lying there (they did not cause her fall, but came later), which affected her left arm and leg, she was even beginning to regain mobility in those limbs; in short she was doing well and was mentally sharp and even being humorous.  The sum total of fighting on all these fronts was, however, taking its toll, and in the end overwhelmed her.  My brother Doug, and sister Jan were with her when came the end, and it was peaceful, and with Love all around her as it should be, but for many so often isn’t.  Having recently listened to a couple of interviews on the radio with a 101 year old lady and a 99 year old man, and thinking, that might be Mom, it comes as a surprise that she is gone; but then … she lives on within our memories … and that is what we have … and they are good.  Perhaps I might say more, and perhaps I will do … in a few days time … when I meet up with my siblings … and we will share our memories. 

always to take a cargo of memories, whatever else, for when all is lost the memories remain.”  The Sacketts: To the Far Blue Mountains, by Lois LAmour, 1976 (Bantam edition, 1977, p. 88)