“Let’s Just Hold Hands”
They have been married for 52 years.
Now she is in rehab
on a feeding tube,
a phantom of her former self,
so frail.
And he is hail
for her.
He says to her:
“Let’s not talk about the past.
Let’s not talk about the future.
Let’s just sit here and hold hands.”
And so they sat for three hours
until the darkness fell.
March 25, 2013 | Categories: Loss | Tags: Death and dying, Enduring Love, Holding Hands, Love, Marriage, Old Age, Old Married Couple, Visiting the sick and dying | 13 Comments
Fighting Back Against Death
It was great to see her even though
she teeters precariously on the brink between life and death.
It was great to see her even though
she struggles to talk, highly frustrated that she cannot.
It was great to see her even though
her body is shrunken into the tortured form of a little girl .
It was great to see her even though
she has a feeding tube and is black and blue all over.
It was great to see her even though
we do not know whether she wants to live like this or die,
or which is best.
It was great to see her even though
her suffering is so painful to watch that her highly devoted husband cannot face it.
It was great to see her even though
once more the future seems bleak and black and I rail against God.
It was great to see her even though, and despite everything,
she cried when she heard we were coming, and she smiled when she saw us,
as we stroked her hair.
It was great to see her, because this may be our last visit
and yet she smiled when we said we’d come back to see her again.
It was great to see her, because even death lurking in the shadows,
cannot snatch away the memory of her happiness to see us.
February 17, 2013 | Categories: Loss | Tags: Anger at God, Death and dying, Despair, Hospital visits, loss, Sickness, Visiting the sick and dying | 5 Comments
MOONSIDE 
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