Four years ago this week, was the last week of my mother’s life. As her life wound down, one of the most difficult things for us, her daughters, was to get her to tell us her wishes and to get her to understand the importance of a living will (should she become incapacitated and no longer be able to make decisions). She did not believe she would die or become unconscious in anyway even though the cancer had spread to many of her vital organs and made its way up her spine and so was reluctant/fearful to make her thoughts known as to whether or not she would want to be kept alive with tubes and machines should her body fail her.
She needed to understand that the decision was hers alone and if she did not put it in writing, then it would fall to us, her daughters to make it. We did not want to make it. It was her body, her decision.
Finally, she did sign the living will, which said she would not want to be kept alive by any means necessary and so three days before her death we were able to use hospice care. She died in my sister’s house with all of us around her, peacefully. No doctors. No lawyers. No politicians.
Just us on a brilliantly sunny Sunday morning, one week before Easter.
It was her choice.
It is your choice, too, my friends–how you die. And so, I am offering you this link: Advance Directive Forms which provides you with all of the information you need should you be interested in having your own living will.
I’m so glad celebrities are continuing to “write” books. Where would we be without reading Venus and Serena’s humble advice to young girls?
“It’s a great book for teenage girls who deal with different issues,” Serena said. “Growing up, I would have loved to have had such a positive role model to look up to and try to be like and try to emulate. We love having that opportunity to say, ‘Look, you can be like us, you can be successful and at the same time have high morals and high self esteem and be a very nice person at the end of the day.”‘
by Myfanwy Collins
Snow is predicted or a snow/rain mix or simply, rain. Spring is just three days old. I must remember to be patient and satisfied that the days are getting longer.
Yesterday, at the back of the house, where the pile of snow is melting away from the foundation, where I planted bulbs of tulips and daffodils, I saw some shoots poking through. Now, there are half a dozen more. I regret not having planted any crocus.
The ground beneath the bird feeder is a pit of despair. Frozen, pockmarked, flecked with the blood of squirrel fights (red against gray, gray against gray, red against red). Today a mourning dove sat with her back to me, then she turned and pecked at the seed.
In December, just past dusk, two deer would come and lick at the feeder. I would turn off the light over the sink. Watch as they took in seed, chewed, waited, listened, froze. A third crossed the lawn and the two turned and followed. In the morning, their prints led through the same path they always did—through the hemlocks, down the hill, over to the edge of the vernal pond, frozen over.
But everything is changing now. Melting. Falling away. The ground is opening up and not even snow can stop it.
Carol Peters passed the stick to me:
1. You’re stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be?
Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson
2. Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
Of course. Who hasn’t? I guess my first crush was Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables. And then all of the kids in the Narnia Chronicles. Frankie in A Member of the Wedding. Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird. Del Jordan in Lives of Girls and Women. The protagonist in Microserfs (his name escapes me).
3. The last book you read.
The Feast of Love, by Charles Baxter
4. What are you currently reading?
A short story collection by Mary Robinson entitled, “Tell Me”, and “A Yellow Raft in Blue Water” by Michael Dorris.
5. Five books you would take to a deserted island:
I hate these sorts of questions. But here goes:
6. Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons) and why? I’m going to pass the stick on to Jordan Rosenfeld, Kathy Fish and Mary Akers because they all love to read and write.
I just don’t know what to say about this story–‘Satanic’ turtle survives inferno:
A turtle who survived a fierce fire that killed 150 other animals at a US pet shop now sports the face of the devil, according to the shop owners.
They say the intense heat of the fire revealed distinctly Satanic eyes, lips, goatee and pointed devil horns on the shell of the creature, now named Lucky. Lucky lost two tank mates in the pet shop fire, but he, somehow, came through the ordeal unscathed.
Owners Bryan and Marsha Dora plan to sell Lucky to the highest bidder.
I am fearful what will happen but the writing has been on the wall. Read on, my friends, and speak out if you can: Army vice chief of staff Cody worried about future of all-volunteer military:
The Army’s vice chief of staff says he’s been losing sleep lately over the future of the all-volunteer force.
“What keeps me awake at night is what this all-volunteer force will look like in 2007,” Gen. Richard Cody told lawmakers recently on Capital Hill.
It’s a concern others should share, he says.
the link to this story came from The Raw Story
I’m horrified by what is going on in this case: Bush, Congress Set to Act in Right-To-Die Case
President Bush cut short a holiday to return to Washington and be ready to sign a bill that may keep a brain-damaged woman alive in a case pitting Christian conservatives against right-to-die activists.
In a rare Sunday session, the U.S. House of Representatives was to discuss a deal aimed at pushing the Florida case into federal court and restoring the feeding tube that has kept Terri Schiavo alive for the past 15 years.
“The president intends to sign legislation as quickly as possible once it is passed,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. “This is about defending life.”
I can understand that her parents and family must feel desperate to keep her alive but if her wish was to not be kept alive this way (which is what her husband contends), then she should have her wish. This is nothing but political posturing.
Wow. This is fucked up: 5-Year-Old Cuffed, Arrested in Florida
myfanwy collins 