The living wander away, we don’t hear from them for months, years—but the dead move in with us to stay.
— Garrison Keillor, The Keillor Reader, 2014
Was up very late last night keeping electronic company with my sister’s friend in Long Island as her father was in the Emergency Room and eventually admitted because his breathing was impaired by excess fluid build up because of congestive heart failure.
Been there, done that with my mother in what turned into a two week stay in hospital with three Rapid Response events including one that took her to the Intensive Care Unit. And near the end of my father’s six months in hospital the next year, as she was with Hospice for lung cancer, he had similar problems.
I’m not sure that what Mr. Keillor says is correct for everyone, but I know that as a writer, it’s clearly true for me. The parents were with me last night as I offered the support and entertainment that I wished I had all those long tough nights in the ER.
They move in with us to stay, indeed.
Callan 