I want to say something about death at a time in history when there is a heightened sense of fear that death will come to some prematurely.
Before COVID-19 I just knew that death would come in its own way, although I didn’t know when or how. There was a normalcy around it which I am not feeling now.
When my mother knew that she was dying, her request was that she could die in her own home.
Doral made that possible.
I was 28. There were 7 others in the family.
The youngest were 17, 15, 13 and 12.
I don’t know what kind of talks she had with Doral. I suspect that how he would raise those kids without her help was on his mind.
I had never been that close to death before – never thought about timing visits from her loved ones, never thought about how much access to her grandchildren she wanted, and I had never gone to a funeral home to look at caskets.
The memory of seeing her die of liver cancer is so etched into my psyche that writing about it pulls up feelings of deep grief.
That big ball of sorrow that I can feel just at the bottom of my throat.
A memory that is so etched into my heart that I want to give it is place when I am thinking of 80 memories that I treasure.
Arta
Before COVID-19 I just knew that death would come in its own way, although I didn’t know when or how. There was a normalcy around it which I am not feeling now.
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| Wyora Pilling March 8, 1914 - March 13, 1968 |
Doral made that possible.
I was 28. There were 7 others in the family.
The youngest were 17, 15, 13 and 12.
I don’t know what kind of talks she had with Doral. I suspect that how he would raise those kids without her help was on his mind.
I had never been that close to death before – never thought about timing visits from her loved ones, never thought about how much access to her grandchildren she wanted, and I had never gone to a funeral home to look at caskets.
The memory of seeing her die of liver cancer is so etched into my psyche that writing about it pulls up feelings of deep grief.
That big ball of sorrow that I can feel just at the bottom of my throat.
A memory that is so etched into my heart that I want to give it is place when I am thinking of 80 memories that I treasure.
Arta
