SoCS: tenuous

My 97 yr. old aunt has a tenuous hold on life. She is dying of dementia and I mean she is in the process of dying, as I was told last Wednesday.

It was about 3 weeks ago they said to get ready for the end. 2 weeks ago, they said , “any day now”.

One thing we have in common is that we are both not parents. She didn’t have kids, she only has my sister and me. I couldn’t have kids but I have a niece and nephew. Its not lost on me that this could happen to me and to them: being responsible for an aging aunt.

Its not the same as a parent; there’s not the emotional connection. Especially with my aunt who had a great life apart from us, in other countries, and wasn’t particularly attached to her nieces. She danced, flamenco danced! and had dinner parties. She had a great life!

But all those friends aren’t with you at the end, only your family.

She certainly would not like to see herself this way; slumped in a wheelchair, vacant, messing her diapers. If she was ‘in sound mind’ she could request assisted suicide but because she does not have any mind left, she cannot.

And so we wait, hoping the end will come soon. For her sake as much as ours.

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “ent” “ten” “net.” Use one, use two or use all three (bonus points for using two, double-bonus points for using all three).

https://lindaghill.com/2019/09/27/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-28-19/