A woman I 'know' from Twitter is going through the rapid decline of her father. He is, I believe, dying from cancer. And she isn't taking this very well. The other day, she tweeted this:
"My dad is dying. He is being moved from the ICU to a Hospice House. We have no say in the matter. Devastated. :'-( "
And a few days later, she tweeted this:
"Hospice House = death chamber. My dad is being legally "murdered" by my step mother. Nothing I can do. Love him so much. Sobbing."
As the only connection this woman and I have is the Red Wings, I don't know what is going on in her personal life. I assume she isn't very close with her stepmother and isn't very happy with the decision to place her father in hospice care. I know that watching a loved one die is not easy, but I was never under the impression that hospice care was 'legal murder.' I always thought that hospice was there to provide a more dignified way to leave this life, but I have not been in the situation and I could very well be wrong.
Rather than fixate on this woman's story, I am using it as a springboard for this post. And I will talk about death.
As the title says, death IS inevitable--we all have to go through it. And as I get older, I find that I really don't fear death like I did when I was younger. Now, I don't particularly WANT to die, but I'm not afraid to die either. I believe my change in how I feel has a lot to do with my faith: I know where I will go when I leave this world--and I know it will be a better place. My one big fear is the ACT of dying--I'm so afraid I will die a painful death. I don't do pain very well, at all. And that is why I always thought that hospice was such a good thing--that they help a person to, not only die with dignity, but to lessen the pain of dying. Believe me, if I am dying while in a great amount of pain, I WILL insist on enormous amounts of pain meds to get me through the pain. And that is why I have questions about my Twitter acquaintance: I don't understand what her problem is, other than not getting along with her stepmother. Death is a sad, sad thing, but is it actually worse than seeing a loved one suffer? While I have seen MANY family members pass on, none have been closer than aunts, uncles, etc. I don't know how I would feel if my husband or one of my children were in a bad way, whether I would want them to 'be out of their misery,' or not. And I certainly hope that I never am put in the position where I have to watch one of them die.
