Another thread in the tapestry of life

My 93 year old Mother-in-Law passed away on Thursaday morning. It was a 17 year struggle with alzheimer's that ended like we always knew it would, actually, like we knew it must. It was strange that it took so long because we met other families along the way whose loved ones were afflicted with alzheimers and they came to an end much quicker.

In some ways my Mother-in-law was luckier than most in that almost the first thing she lost was any sense of awareness that anything was actually was wrong. The event that led to the end of her independent living was one evening when I was on the phone with her and she started coughing. I asked if she had a cold and she said "No, there's just so much smoke in the house that I can't breathe." She had been cooking bacon in a pan and let it set on fire but had no idea that the fire was unusual. Losing that awareness, we think, kept her from suffering.

The next five days or so will be tied up in the minutae of funerals and family visits. No grips. No whining. No complaining. It's all a part of the tapestry of life.

See you later.

hizzhoner