Death as in Disease
My Aunt, who graduated with a Bachelors of Science Honors in 1974 and a Masters of Science on August 12, 1981 -- probably one of the most intelligent women in my family -- passed away at about 1am this past Tuesday about 5 minutes after my family decided to pull the plug. Her disease finally took her.
She was a bio-chemical engineer for Tenneco when I was little and a druggie and alcoholic ever since I can remember. There have been two times in my life that I can remember her being clean. The first time, she spent a lot of time babysitting my brother and me, and she tutored me on math. The second time, she went to acupuncture school and got her acupuncture license. It is hard to believe that a woman with all that talent would spend the last two months of her life in bed without getting up for any reason and just drinking her life away.
In the process of being irresponsible she also failed to keep life insurance, so she is being cremated and no services will be held. Instead of living her life to its fullest and having a nice service, she died, leaving her friends and family to sign the papers at the hospital to take her off life support.
My Mom, who is sick, lived with my Aunt for the past four to five years in Houston. My Mom tried as far back as two weeks to get my Aunt’s doctor to admit her into the hospital but the doctor refused, knowing that my Aunt would just continue drinking no matter what.
My Mom said that up until the day she passed, my Aunt would still talk to my Mom. My Mom would tell her that she was going to call for an ambulance and my Aunt would tell her no. My Aunt even told her no the day she died. My Mom finally called an ambulance after she stopped responding.
The house they lived in is a mess. My Aunt would buy all sorts of things and pile them up or take them apart. Neither of them could do much cleaning, so the house is filthy. On Wednesday my brother and I went to be with my Mom and to talk with her about moving. She cannot afford the house on her own so we need to get her an apartment. She knows that she has to move and is pretty ok with that. We told her that we needed to start getting things cleaned up and figure out what she wanted to take with her and what is trash. She is not ready to deal with all of this but we had to push her along since she needs to be out in a month. We all decided to work on the house the next day. My brother and I went to get construction trash bags, gloves and masks. I started looking for apartments in the two parts of town where she is interested in living. My brother and I went over Thursday to try and start cleaning the house. After three hours of constant work, we were able to clean the two living rooms, and one of the three bedrooms. We now have about one full room of trash. In the process of going through everything we found four working vacuums, multiple containers and lots of various types of furniture.
I also found my Aunt’s AA chips all over the house. I didn’t look at each one but the highest I found was two years. I found a one month and a nine month and I saw several others but I didn’t pick up every one. It is hard to go through the house of someone who died from alcoholism and see the evidence of the times that she tried. It is also hard to see the diplomas that show how brilliant she was before she started drinking.
The house is full of books, many that are how-to books for all sorts of things, and bits and pieces of projects in all categories that she would start and not finish. We still have much to do before we are finished, and when all is said and done we may have two 20 foot trailer loads full of just trash. Most of that is electronics that were taken apart and thereby broken. As far as my Mom goes, I am looking forward to finding her an apartment and getting her some new clean things. We want to get all of her things cleaned up before we move her and get her in a nice, new, clean place so that she will be able to start fresh. I hope that if she has some nice clean things and a small clean place she will be able to manage and keep the place clean. Living with my Aunt has done a number on her head, and I hope we can pull her out of it. I really look forward to getting her into a place that I will enjoy visiting.
She was a bio-chemical engineer for Tenneco when I was little and a druggie and alcoholic ever since I can remember. There have been two times in my life that I can remember her being clean. The first time, she spent a lot of time babysitting my brother and me, and she tutored me on math. The second time, she went to acupuncture school and got her acupuncture license. It is hard to believe that a woman with all that talent would spend the last two months of her life in bed without getting up for any reason and just drinking her life away.
In the process of being irresponsible she also failed to keep life insurance, so she is being cremated and no services will be held. Instead of living her life to its fullest and having a nice service, she died, leaving her friends and family to sign the papers at the hospital to take her off life support.
My Mom, who is sick, lived with my Aunt for the past four to five years in Houston. My Mom tried as far back as two weeks to get my Aunt’s doctor to admit her into the hospital but the doctor refused, knowing that my Aunt would just continue drinking no matter what.
My Mom said that up until the day she passed, my Aunt would still talk to my Mom. My Mom would tell her that she was going to call for an ambulance and my Aunt would tell her no. My Aunt even told her no the day she died. My Mom finally called an ambulance after she stopped responding.
The house they lived in is a mess. My Aunt would buy all sorts of things and pile them up or take them apart. Neither of them could do much cleaning, so the house is filthy. On Wednesday my brother and I went to be with my Mom and to talk with her about moving. She cannot afford the house on her own so we need to get her an apartment. She knows that she has to move and is pretty ok with that. We told her that we needed to start getting things cleaned up and figure out what she wanted to take with her and what is trash. She is not ready to deal with all of this but we had to push her along since she needs to be out in a month. We all decided to work on the house the next day. My brother and I went to get construction trash bags, gloves and masks. I started looking for apartments in the two parts of town where she is interested in living. My brother and I went over Thursday to try and start cleaning the house. After three hours of constant work, we were able to clean the two living rooms, and one of the three bedrooms. We now have about one full room of trash. In the process of going through everything we found four working vacuums, multiple containers and lots of various types of furniture.
I also found my Aunt’s AA chips all over the house. I didn’t look at each one but the highest I found was two years. I found a one month and a nine month and I saw several others but I didn’t pick up every one. It is hard to go through the house of someone who died from alcoholism and see the evidence of the times that she tried. It is also hard to see the diplomas that show how brilliant she was before she started drinking.
The house is full of books, many that are how-to books for all sorts of things, and bits and pieces of projects in all categories that she would start and not finish. We still have much to do before we are finished, and when all is said and done we may have two 20 foot trailer loads full of just trash. Most of that is electronics that were taken apart and thereby broken. As far as my Mom goes, I am looking forward to finding her an apartment and getting her some new clean things. We want to get all of her things cleaned up before we move her and get her in a nice, new, clean place so that she will be able to start fresh. I hope that if she has some nice clean things and a small clean place she will be able to manage and keep the place clean. Living with my Aunt has done a number on her head, and I hope we can pull her out of it. I really look forward to getting her into a place that I will enjoy visiting.