What I can't say on Facebook
I went to Calgary last week because my grandfather, who's nearly 96, is very sick.
While I was there, my brother called my mom (I was staying with her) and said all the things he's wanted to since he was a child, that she wasn't the greatest mother, that he missed having her in his life when he was growing up, that he felt she left him behind (she moved to the other side of the world when he was about eight, and never went back for him).
He apologized to her because he stood us up for lunch on Friday. He'd told me then that he wasn't coming because his cirrhosis was causing him pain, but I suspected he just didn't want to spend an hour with her, even to see me. My mom said he'd never apologized to her before and I thought, "I didn't hear you apologize to him."
He wasn't very coherent. We wondered whether it was the medication he's on. Eventually he dropped the phone. We could hear his half-brother in the background and though my mom waited five or 10 minutes and called out to him, he didn't come back to the phone. We thought he'd probably forgotten he was talking to her. It took her a long time to hang up the phone, because it's so hard to make a connection with him.
A few hours later, he died.
While I was there, my brother called my mom (I was staying with her) and said all the things he's wanted to since he was a child, that she wasn't the greatest mother, that he missed having her in his life when he was growing up, that he felt she left him behind (she moved to the other side of the world when he was about eight, and never went back for him).
He apologized to her because he stood us up for lunch on Friday. He'd told me then that he wasn't coming because his cirrhosis was causing him pain, but I suspected he just didn't want to spend an hour with her, even to see me. My mom said he'd never apologized to her before and I thought, "I didn't hear you apologize to him."
He wasn't very coherent. We wondered whether it was the medication he's on. Eventually he dropped the phone. We could hear his half-brother in the background and though my mom waited five or 10 minutes and called out to him, he didn't come back to the phone. We thought he'd probably forgotten he was talking to her. It took her a long time to hang up the phone, because it's so hard to make a connection with him.
A few hours later, he died.