constant stranger
Well-known member
I said a last goodbye to a friend yesterday. He is stricken by ALS, has declined rapidly for more than a year and he's welcoming the end of his life.
He's in his late 70's and has a good family support network. I know him through the volunteer master gardener movement; he welcomed me when i was a newcomer and has been an exemplary mentor and.....actually he's been the elder brother that my own two brothers never were.
He'll never walk, feed or dress himself again. We both bid our final farewells to one another....he'll be moved to an intensive care nursing home this week and quite clearly expressed the sentiment that he's unafraid of death, far prefers transitioning to what comes after and utterly abhors the life he has to live now. Now is the time for nurses, orderlies and his family to ease him through his last days....that is his wish.
I left him with a small token of our acquaintance....a little vase of the last daffodils of this spring's blooming....they come from my grove of apple trees, a place that he really liked to stroll through and be in. He called it my "oasis". They'll eventually wilt before his eyes and he'll see a nurse from his current assisted living facility take them away and later this week he'll be wheeled away himself.....from his little apartment to an even littler room in a hospital-like setting.
I'm sad although I'm privileged to have known him.
He's in his late 70's and has a good family support network. I know him through the volunteer master gardener movement; he welcomed me when i was a newcomer and has been an exemplary mentor and.....actually he's been the elder brother that my own two brothers never were.
He'll never walk, feed or dress himself again. We both bid our final farewells to one another....he'll be moved to an intensive care nursing home this week and quite clearly expressed the sentiment that he's unafraid of death, far prefers transitioning to what comes after and utterly abhors the life he has to live now. Now is the time for nurses, orderlies and his family to ease him through his last days....that is his wish.
I left him with a small token of our acquaintance....a little vase of the last daffodils of this spring's blooming....they come from my grove of apple trees, a place that he really liked to stroll through and be in. He called it my "oasis". They'll eventually wilt before his eyes and he'll see a nurse from his current assisted living facility take them away and later this week he'll be wheeled away himself.....from his little apartment to an even littler room in a hospital-like setting.
I'm sad although I'm privileged to have known him.