Capitalism - Feudalism without the King
Tax the Rich

 

It's not Knitting Friday nor was there Website Wednesday

 

I didn't realize until late into last Wednesday that it was even Wednesday. My picks had been ready to go but no matter how you may believe you are "cool as a cucumber" (just where does that idiom come from?) during stress, you ain't

 

We've been on a sort of death watch for DM since last Sunday. After 10 months on hospice, 10 very long months for her because she was able to function fairly well but unable to get her dearest wish which was to die, in a flash everything went south this past  weekend. Bam! On Sunday, she experienced a prolonged angina attack which probably caused more heart damage. On Monday, she became unresponsive and things got really messy, and on Tuesday, she rallied. On Wednesday, she took to her bed to die. 

 

"Took to her bed to die." Sounds farfetched? Take a look at this site:

 

http://kokuamau.org/resources/last-stages-life

which is from a Hawaiian hospice organization and is one of the best explanations of the end of life both for the dying and for the caregiver. Hearing her final requests to turn out the lights (she has slept for 10 months with a light on) and "You can leave me." (she has enjoyed someone sitting with her all along), I'm reminded of the stories of wild animals who go off to die alone.

 

When my father died suddenly, the poem by Dickinson, The Bustle in a House, sprang into my mind because, for some reason, in times of stress I find poetry soothing.

The Bustle in a House

The Morning after Death

Is solemnest of industries

Enacted upon Earth –

The Sweeping up the Heart

And putting Love away....

 

And now it's the Yeats poem, Slouching Toward Bethlehem, which I remember:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;.....