Farewell to a lovely lady

Over a year of steady decline, the inevitable end happened today. In the past 3 weeks Mom said she was experiencing pain in her legs and would not transfer without screaming and crying. After a trip to the ER and being told there was physically nothing wrong it came down to the brain. On Wednesday, when she would no longer get out of bed, Bob brought a hospital bed into the living room and another bed in for Dad. After struggling with pain management, we brought in hospice on Friday afternoon. Fr. Unsworth from St. Bernard's came and administered anointing of the sick. Mom was animated and grateful. Someone found a CD of music from the 40s and 50s and it seemed to calm and comfort her. Every once in a while she would wake up and sing along. When the hospice nurse came Saturday afternoon, as she was adjusting the bedding and checking vitals she said, "she's going". We all gathered around the bed and watched her take her last breath. I opened a window because we had heard that this was a practice done to let the spirit out. When her body had been removed and people had been called, we sat down in the dining room. Dad said, "do you think I could have a beer?" We toasted Mom and I noticed that the sun was setting over the cove. I went outside to take a picture of my glass with the sunset in the background and noticed a cloud formation that looked just like an angel. We all stood on the deck and took pictures and took comfort in what we thought we saw. Thanks for saying good bye Mom. Quite a day.