My uncle at his death. "Forgiveness?" Naturopathy.
My mom finally called me this morning, to inform me of my uncle's death, from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
She said his whole body was swollen and covered with bedsores. He had heart failure (and probably cardiac arrest) at the end. His kidneys were failing. His lungs were filled with fluid, from his pneumonia, which had developed because his immune system was shot. The ICU put a breathing tube down his throat the other week.
His eyeballs became blue. She said his brother (my other uncle) flew here from the Philippines a few days ago and dug around his eyes with his fingers.
What's sad is how my mom's sisters (my two aunts) would keep up this false optimism, based on zero evidence. "Oh, it looks like he's getting better today. No need for you to come. The prayer is working. Oh, now he's worse today. Wait, now he looks better..."
Then my mom told me: "You needed to ask your uncle for forgiveness. He still had resentment against you."
"Forgiveness? You must be kidding, mom." Were they still mad that I had told his nurse that his family was secretly taking his hospital food home and replacing it with their own food and own dietary supplements? That I had told his medical team the truth, so they could actually do their jobs?
This refusal to face reality about how close he was to death, about how all their "faith healers" and "naturopaths" and other quack solutions had failed, this was one of many things that prevented us from bonding as a family.
Here's what's fake about naturopathy.
She said his whole body was swollen and covered with bedsores. He had heart failure (and probably cardiac arrest) at the end. His kidneys were failing. His lungs were filled with fluid, from his pneumonia, which had developed because his immune system was shot. The ICU put a breathing tube down his throat the other week.
His eyeballs became blue. She said his brother (my other uncle) flew here from the Philippines a few days ago and dug around his eyes with his fingers.
What's sad is how my mom's sisters (my two aunts) would keep up this false optimism, based on zero evidence. "Oh, it looks like he's getting better today. No need for you to come. The prayer is working. Oh, now he's worse today. Wait, now he looks better..."
Then my mom told me: "You needed to ask your uncle for forgiveness. He still had resentment against you."
"Forgiveness? You must be kidding, mom." Were they still mad that I had told his nurse that his family was secretly taking his hospital food home and replacing it with their own food and own dietary supplements? That I had told his medical team the truth, so they could actually do their jobs?
This refusal to face reality about how close he was to death, about how all their "faith healers" and "naturopaths" and other quack solutions had failed, this was one of many things that prevented us from bonding as a family.
Here's what's fake about naturopathy.