So it ends. Or does it?

[shiroioji]

Okay, a lot of you added me to read the further adventures of Shay, the monster that has clocked over 2,000 comments. Well, the story, I think, came to a close today. I was called at 7:24 am from Chandler Hospital, and well, she was found dead this morning before the 7:00 am shift. She wasn't breathing, and she had pilfered food wrappers around

Comments

[ratkrycek]

I'm sorry. :(

I know you might say that she wasn't someone you considered a friend exactly at the end, but still, you were friends at one time, and for quite a while, and I know... friendly concern doesn't just go away. There are plenty of folks in my life who, by all rights, I should not care about, but do, and if I heard one of them was dead, well, it'd affect me, too. Not in a terrible way or anything, but I'd be sad.

I hope you get to talk with her family. And yeah, it will be a hard message to give, but... you'll find the right words. I believe you're a caring person, and the right words seem to come natural when you care.

And I know her family will be glad someone was there and trying to help her at the end. Don't blame yourself; you did the best by her that you could (which happened to be a lot), and sometimes there are some folks you just can't help. It's as if they're bound and determined to self-destruct, no matter how much help you offer.

*soft hug, if you want one*

[shiroioji]

Thanks. Honestly, I am not sure what I feel about the whole thing at this point. I want to do the right thing and get in touch with her family, and if they want nothing to do with her, I was thinking that possibly donating her body to medical research would be best. I mean, how many places get to study a case like her? It might do a world of good for diabetes research...

[patient_0]

There's also those artists making stuff for exhibits like Bodyworlds...
I just got back from a funeral, myself. Strange days.

[shiroioji]

Wow, that's sad. She's too large to be used for research? Wow. Okay, granted, she's more than three of me, but still, that's sad.

I am not so worried about talking to her family, it's more what is expected of me when it comes to her that I am worried about. She has been released to the city morgue by now. I know I cannot pay to claim her remains, whether she is cremated or whatever, and there is no way I can pay for a funeral for her. That's the part that makes me sort of sad, the thought that she might just end up in a box for a long, long time on some shelf in a city morgue.

Can you tell me of anything I can do about that?

[shiroioji]

Yeah, there is no way that I could even begin to afford something like that, and no way that I would be willing to, figuring that while I knew her, she did nothing, and I mean nothing, but lie about who she was and what her story really was. This is why getting in touch with her family has been so difficult; she cloaked herself in mystery so that she would not have to face the consequences of her friends talking to each other or her family and finding out about her lies.

I can say, however, that from what her step-dad last said to me when we spoke last September, he would be fully unwilling to ship her back home; she wreaked a lot of havoc on her whole family and they were glad to be rid of her.

The hospital people told me a lot of things that were interesting to know. They were going to get her the lat-band surgery for free, but she used all of her "research" time on the net writing up her new LJ, and all sorts of fucked up things.

I have to say as well, I am so glad to hear from you again. I miss your wit!

Re: Better off dead

[shiroioji]

That's part of what's messed up about the whole thing. I talked to a social worker from the hospital at length on my lunch break from this temp job I am working at, and well, it's fucked up what she did to herself. They made her sign a waiver, because she wouldn't follow the diet that the nutritionists came up with for her. I mean, she lost ten pounds apparently and came down to 475 while she was at Tarzana-Encino hospital. Then she went to the home she was in, a convelescent home, and wouldn't follow their diet and blew up to 515 in the last year

Re: Better off dead

[redmeatmolly]

That is really, really sad.

Re: Better off dead

[blumchen]

The pictures of all the feces and stored urine didn't phase me one bit, but the imagery that this brings to mind is the most disgusting thing I can think of.

It's baffling what some people will let themselves become.