Good morning... Look at that smile! When my father texted this photo of my mom back home at their senior living community, her pure joy made me smile. What a contrast from the image seared on my mind from eleven days before. My mom was hooked up to a ventilator, heavily sedated, laying unresponsive in the ICU. Now, [...]
Good morning... "I am happy to hear that your mom is progressing," texted my friend from across the street. "One thing that could be really great for her is music. Music is the only thing that we use both sides of our brain for." She sent the music video below as a form of encouragement. This morning, I [...]
Good morning... Many of you continue to ask about my mom's condition since last week's post My Mom Is In The ICU. Together as a written word community we have experienced the potent power of prayer. Connected to tons of life-saving machines, there was no medical explanation for my mother opening her eyes to greet the sound of [...]
Good morning... Waking after a full night's sleep, I cozy up on the couch and think, "Healing is happening." God invites me forward from yesterday's post, My Unexpected Grief. I return to the wise book sustaining me very personally during this season of Lent, Paula D'Arcy's Winter of the Heart: Finding Your Way Through the Mystery of Grief. [...]
Good morning... It was hard to leave Ohio with my mother in the ICU. I had a meaningful visit with my parents and siblings, but I was deeply concerned about my mom's condition. On my final morning with her, the nurse asked her where she was and my mom replied, "I am at the Renaissance (the retirement community [...]
Good morning... On Monday morning, my dad and I were with my mom in the ICU when her regular doctor stopped in. He had seen my mom soon after she was admitted, when she was hooked up to all the machinery keeping her alive. Very, very sick with an unidentified infection, she was unresponsive and highly sedated. That [...]
Good morning... When we left my mom in the ICU, it was a blustery late March evening with light snowflakes swirling in the Ohio air. There was a strand of hope frozen in our minds: mom had opened her eyes for about five minutes. Then she had drifted away from us again. Sustained by the ventilator, her body [...]
Good morning... "It will be good for us all to be together," my sister said as I booked a one-way ticket to Cleveland, Ohio to be with my 83-year-old mom in the ICU. "We may need to make some hard end of life decisions." The reality was sobering. I had begun the normal day facilitating our Friday class [...]
Good morning... The photo above was sent with the email below. "Dear Sue," a close friend wrote. "You know well the agonies of parenthood as well as the joys, and your contacts are so wide. Please share as you are able and see fit. This message under Will's photo is from his mom, RuthAnn." "So much [...]
Good morning... This encouraging video was created last April by our author for this semester, Paula D'Arcy, and her seasoned spiritual friend, Khris Ford. Well worth five minutes of our time, the insights shared may be helpful for those personally struggling through grief and for those seeking to walk beside a loved one who is slowly trudging through. [...]
