My mom’s spirit soared up to heaven in the early morning hours this past Sunday, October 25th. As my sister and I sat in the hospice room and watched her take her last breath, in my mind’s eye I could picture an angel coming down to escort my mom to eternity.

When I last wrote of my mom in this blog a few months ago, I had no idea I had so little time left with her. She had lived independently at her home until July then had broken her hip while visiting me…well actually she smashed it into a number of pieces. Still, she had worked hard in rehab following surgery and though she mostly was confined to a wheelchair in a skilled nursing facility, she could with assistance, walk using her walker.

Two weeks before my mom got sick, she was strong enough to go out to a restaurant, for the first time since her fall. The senior care facility brought her along with a number of other skilled nursing residents to Mimi’s Café and I met them there for lunch. My mom even transferred from her wheelchair to a regular chair…she was thrilled to sit like a “healthy person”. We sat together, ordered our food and talked of the many future restaurant lunches she would have. Her birthday was in a few weeks and we planned a lunch outing then.

The lunch plans were not to be. A week later, my mom came down with a fever. Throughout the following week she continued to feel unwell then started to have difficulty breathing due to congestion in her lungs. What I know now is that the bacteria in her body mimicked a virus, looked like bronchitis but in reality was multiplying into a deadly form of pneumonia. By the time she was rushed to the ER, the infection had collapsed one lung. Although I was at first upset that the nursing facility did not send her to the ER sooner, I understand now that the only way to distinguish the bacterial infection from a more minor condition was to culture the fluid…which the hospital did do; but it was too late.

After five days in the hospital, it was clear that there was no hope. Mom would not be able to survive surgery and she was unable to recover without it. My mom opted to forgo surgery and we took her to hospice.

How does one say good bye to loved ones? It’s so hard. My mom said a poignant good bye by phone to her 94 year old sister who lived out of state and was too frail to travel. My brother came for a few days but being a doctor, had patients scheduled. Each of the grand-kids said good bye either by phone or in person. A lot of shed tears.

Monday night, it was my turn to spend the night in mom’s hospice room. During the night, she woke and I sat with her in the dark, holding her hand. After a few moments, she unexpectedly said, “We were good friends, weren’t we?” I said, “Yes, Mom we were”, thinking particularly of the three months since July when I, being the only one living here in town, visited her both morning and evening and we had some wonderful talks together. I will always cherish the memory of all of those visits and then that last night in the dark with her when it was just the two of us. Finally, I said that we had better get back to sleep and lay down on the couch beside her bed. Through the dark came my mom’s voice…”Good Night!”

On Tuesday, mom was mostly asleep but roused midafternoon. That was the last time we sisters all could really talk with her and will always be glad the topic was a fun memory. My mom reminisced being 18 years old when WWII broke out. She and a friend would go to the USO to dance with the soldiers…combination patriotism and fun. We teased her that she must have been the prettiest girl in the room and that all the soldiers must have wanted to dance with her. Her eyes lit up and with a smile, she said, “Yes!”

The next day was her 92nd birthday and she was not able to talk any more. We sang Happy Birthday and could tell that she heard us. After that, my two sisters and I stayed day and night at her bedside in a vigil to the end.

The hospice was wonderful. The nurses kept mom medicated, the volunteers plied us with chocolate chip cookies and though the end was hard for us to watch, we know that mom was too heavily sedated to have suffered.

The national and local news somehow missed the fact that a wonderful person passed from this earth. My mom’s name will be missing from history books, however her influence is indelibly marked onto our hearts. She taught us to love life, to love books, travel and most of all, love each other. We “grown kids” are better people for her quiet grace.

Good night, sweet Mom. See you in heaven.