To Rick and Margie,I hope you will permit me to share a little about my mother, whom I loved dearly, with you. At 82 she had the 1st stroke, and bounced back quickly, at 83 the 2nd one- this took longer- but she learned how to walk with the walker and carry a glass of wine at the same time.[I never saw her spill a drop] During her 84th yr. she was walking to her bedroom one night and fell-the Docs never knew if the hip bone just gave way or she broke it in the fall. She crawled to her bedroom, but slept on the floor because she couldn't stand up. She did not call us until the next a.m.- didn't want to wake anyone up that late-The surgery to repair the hip went well, but the recovery and therapy did not. One late afternoon about 3 1\2 months into her hospital stay, I came in for my daily visit to bring her a fresh shrimp cocktail, which she loved. We visited while she ate and as I got ready to leave she looked me in the eye and said "Amy, I'm tired of this" My answer was that I would start looking into a full time nurse at home and talk to her Doc about releasing her. She just smiled. At 5:30 the following morning, her Doc called us to say she had died during the night. I am 99.9% sure she willed it. She had lived well, loved and nurtured her family and had a strong faith in God. I'll admit that I was mad at her for a long time afterward for "giving up" but now I know that she no longer wanted to suffer the indignities of not being able to care for herself.
I miss her everyday ,I salute her stamina, respect her courage, and I honor her decision. I insisted that she get well while she knew that it wasn't going to happen. She was smarter than me[she's probably grinning at this statement] She knew it was time to go and she wasn't afraid. Hold your Mom's hand and tell her how much you love her and let her decide. Amy