6/9/17 The Simple Facts of the Matter
High 70's, very sunny.
It's the 17th anniversary of my mother's death. I went back through the archive of this blog and it seems I only addressed it once in the form of a short and not good poem that wasn't particularly explicit though it was an accurate recollection of how I received the news. My social media memories make only oblique indications of this as well usually in the form of song selections posted as links to you tube videos which is how I often talk about things I want to talk about without anyone but a savvy few knowing what I'm talking about or making a connection (though I think more than a few people figured out my live-reacting to the inauguration of our current Entertainer in Chief back in January). Once a college radio DJ always a college radio DJ I suppose.
So let us simply be direct and factual here, just for the record in case anyone interested in my family history ever finds this. In early January 2000 my mother came down with a cold or flu that eventually progressed into pneumonia. I arrived on Saturday January 15th to take her to our family doctor and found her not breathing particularly well but conscious and fully present. Still it was enough to make me suggest calling an ambulance and going straight to the hospital but she was having none of that. So I wheeled her out to the van and as she climbed into the front seat she gasped, said "I can't breathe" and lost consciousness. I tried calling 911 from my crappy flip phone and kept losing signal and ran inside and called from the house phone. She was non-responsive by the time paramedics arrived but they got her heart started again en route to the hospital. I was told the cold January air had "shocked" her lungs and sent her into respiratory and then cardiac arrest. She never regained consciousness and lingered on in a vegetative state until June 9, 2000 when she died in a nursing home, alone as it was after visiting hours.
That's all there is to it, all there is to the end of one person's life.
She was my mother and I miss her and I'm sorry I couldn't save her and I'm sorry she didn't have a better death. These are just the facts.
It's the 17th anniversary of my mother's death. I went back through the archive of this blog and it seems I only addressed it once in the form of a short and not good poem that wasn't particularly explicit though it was an accurate recollection of how I received the news. My social media memories make only oblique indications of this as well usually in the form of song selections posted as links to you tube videos which is how I often talk about things I want to talk about without anyone but a savvy few knowing what I'm talking about or making a connection (though I think more than a few people figured out my live-reacting to the inauguration of our current Entertainer in Chief back in January). Once a college radio DJ always a college radio DJ I suppose.
So let us simply be direct and factual here, just for the record in case anyone interested in my family history ever finds this. In early January 2000 my mother came down with a cold or flu that eventually progressed into pneumonia. I arrived on Saturday January 15th to take her to our family doctor and found her not breathing particularly well but conscious and fully present. Still it was enough to make me suggest calling an ambulance and going straight to the hospital but she was having none of that. So I wheeled her out to the van and as she climbed into the front seat she gasped, said "I can't breathe" and lost consciousness. I tried calling 911 from my crappy flip phone and kept losing signal and ran inside and called from the house phone. She was non-responsive by the time paramedics arrived but they got her heart started again en route to the hospital. I was told the cold January air had "shocked" her lungs and sent her into respiratory and then cardiac arrest. She never regained consciousness and lingered on in a vegetative state until June 9, 2000 when she died in a nursing home, alone as it was after visiting hours.
That's all there is to it, all there is to the end of one person's life.
She was my mother and I miss her and I'm sorry I couldn't save her and I'm sorry she didn't have a better death. These are just the facts.
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