Alone with my mom – reading and thinking

Posted By on December 15, 2012

This Thursday thru Saturday has been challenging for my dad, brother and me. My mom, who has been in hospice care the last few months, is now in the "active dying" momc121215stage according to the nurse. Her vital signs have been up and down the last couple of days and we’ve been trading round the clock shifts to be by her bedside, as well as plenty of overlap. It seems like there should be something more that I could be doing for the one who nurtured me into this world?

The nursing care is most appreciated as they are keeping mom in a drug induced unconscious state for the most part, yet it is still uncomfortable to watch and listen to the human body struggling to shut down. For those who make end of life care a career calling and to compassionately assist family through the process, I’m grateful you exist. Mom is in compassionate hands. One nurse in particular has been there for much of my 5PM to 5AM shifts and she has been very kind and loving … thank you Jane.

As has been said by those who are assured in their salvation in heaven, “it is not death that we fear, it is dying.” My prayer is that God would find it in His mercy to take mom home gently (but a little quicker) and keep her from suffering … and to bring peace to those around her.

Those who have concluded that Jesus is who he proclaimed to be … and have accepted Jesus as their personal Savior … have little to fear from death.

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”  John 10:27-29

* * *

Comments

Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee

  1. lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
  2. digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.
My Desultory Blog