yesterday we had to take our beloved west highland terrier for final care. (I hate those other euphemisms.) I held him till he let go and went out to join my wife who was sobbing in the car.
when we got home there was a message from my older sister who was en route to upstate ny for my other sister's daughter's graduation, and she said our mother had a nasty seizure in the nursing home at nine in the morning and still wasn't coming around at three in the afternoon. she said no need to go over now, fri aft/evening, but would i go after work sat? i was scheduled to get out at 3:30.
7 am at work i get a call, i know this is not good, would i please go over to the nursing home, they don't know what's happening, and they don't want mom to be alone.
so i leave work and drive the 18 miles, got me a book, a coffee, and i'm ready to spend the day. shortly after i got there my sil arrives and we sit chatting about all the abuse i take from my boss and my kids, and my mother stops breathing and dies. Just like that. i kept watching her as her breathing got less raspy, they had just given her some morphine on her tongue, and after a few minutes i began to think something was up because the sheets weren't going up and down. the nurse came in and put the stethescope on her chest, looked up and said, she's gone.
there was nothing to do, she's got dnr's up the wazoo, so it just happened.
I stopped at her younger sister's house on the way home and she was la-de-da. i stopped and bought a suit and when i got back to my car i bumped the mirror on the car next to me and a little dog started barking. i turned around and was not surprised to see....a west highland terrier.