visitor at mama's side

She was a nurse working full time at the hospital taking care of her husband and adult Down's syndrom child when she brought her mother home to her house to die. FMLA was invoked and she was able to stay at home with her mother.

It was during caseconference that I got a frantic Thursday morning call from her. Something has happened to Mama, we need to get a pain pump on her right away. I reassured her that I would be there as soon as I could get away from the meeting. I was surprised to find her talking quietly to another daughter expecting her to be needing reassurance.

But I'm getting away from the story. Her daughter that was visiting brought a grandchild and they had stayed the night. I talked to both of them of the signs and symptoms of approaching terminal event and all that would /could be done was to keep her mother comfortable. That she could expect her mother to talk to people that noone else could see,...usually someone they loved that had gone on before...the granddaughter gasped, " That explains it!" and the patient's daughter started smiling..I asked for an explanation...

When the granddaughter arrived with her baby she placed him on the sofa in a ''punkin'' seat. The child cooed and smiled, looking up towards the ceiling most of the day, did not whimper, fuss or cry..and the patient was talking to her late husband...The daughter added to the story that during the night her Down's syndrom daughter was heard talking in her bedroom during the middle of the night, when her mother asked her the next morning who she had been talking to she replied, "grandpa". Granddaughter said that she now understood why her child was so happy, Greatgrandpa had been playing with him....angels visits are truely special. love mom