Good News Never Lasts
Mary got another infection. In her current condition, she can't handle more brain surgery. So now, there really is nothing that can be done.
Jean is bringing Mary home, going to have a hospital bed put in the living room, get nurses to come in, so that way Mary can die at home with her family and her cats. Jean has requested that I come up, she wants someone there to help her out and provide some moral support, and Mary would want to see me again (which is not to say she will consciously know that I am there, she's delirious again most of the time because of the infection). My father will be paying for my ticket, Jean had called him first to tell him her plan and say that she would pay for my way up when he said he would do it instead (good, I would have killed him otherwise, my father can easily afford this whereas Jean can not).
I am trying to mentally prepare myself for this. I have not had many people I knew and cared about die on me, all the ones who have so far have died very suddenly (stroke, pulminary embolism, heart failure in her sleep). In the grand scheme of things I suppose this is sudden too, I saw her over Christmas and she was fine, cancer was very managable, the tumors appeared in her head and she went down hill in about a month's time. Still, this is the first time I will ever have to see someone literally wasting away from illness, everything that I hear is she looks frighteningly bad.
No solid plans as of yet, but I'll probably be going after the weekend. Prayers please, one last time. Pray that she doesn't linger on more than necessary. I'd pray for Jean and her kids as well. She has lived with her sister for a very long time now, and in addition to the obvious loss Mary was the breadwinner there, Jean had to quit her job when Mary got too sick (it was a miserable hostess job at a Greek restaurant, they had her working seven days a week, doing overtime they wouldn't pay her for; day she left she demanded the overtime she was owed or she would start making phone calls, now she has three years worth of overtime pay to live on for the moment). There are four kids living there, too. They're all going to need some help in the very near future.
Jean is bringing Mary home, going to have a hospital bed put in the living room, get nurses to come in, so that way Mary can die at home with her family and her cats. Jean has requested that I come up, she wants someone there to help her out and provide some moral support, and Mary would want to see me again (which is not to say she will consciously know that I am there, she's delirious again most of the time because of the infection). My father will be paying for my ticket, Jean had called him first to tell him her plan and say that she would pay for my way up when he said he would do it instead (good, I would have killed him otherwise, my father can easily afford this whereas Jean can not).
I am trying to mentally prepare myself for this. I have not had many people I knew and cared about die on me, all the ones who have so far have died very suddenly (stroke, pulminary embolism, heart failure in her sleep). In the grand scheme of things I suppose this is sudden too, I saw her over Christmas and she was fine, cancer was very managable, the tumors appeared in her head and she went down hill in about a month's time. Still, this is the first time I will ever have to see someone literally wasting away from illness, everything that I hear is she looks frighteningly bad.
No solid plans as of yet, but I'll probably be going after the weekend. Prayers please, one last time. Pray that she doesn't linger on more than necessary. I'd pray for Jean and her kids as well. She has lived with her sister for a very long time now, and in addition to the obvious loss Mary was the breadwinner there, Jean had to quit her job when Mary got too sick (it was a miserable hostess job at a Greek restaurant, they had her working seven days a week, doing overtime they wouldn't pay her for; day she left she demanded the overtime she was owed or she would start making phone calls, now she has three years worth of overtime pay to live on for the moment). There are four kids living there, too. They're all going to need some help in the very near future.