Mom's Last Christmas by Earl Corp Holiday Blessings writing prompt entry Artwork by cleo85 at FanArtReview.com |
Warning: The author has noted that this contains the highest level of language.
I’ve had several holiday blessings over the years, the one that stands out the most is the Christmas 1994, my Mom’s last Christmas.I wasn’t home for Christmas from 1979 to 1992. In 1993, I had just started working for Vision Quest, a juvenile placement, and worked on Christmas Day. In 1994, the roof fell in. I was attending college for my teaching degree and would be starting my junior year that fall. The Sunday before the semester, began my sister called: Mom was in the hospital with congestive heart failure. When I arrived, Mom was in a coma and on a ventilator. She was in the ICU and only allowed two visitors at a time. And the hits kept on coming. Since she didn’t have a Living Will, they asked about taking her off the ventilator. I was 34, the oldest of four, and Mom was 57. I wasn’t ready to pull the plug. Then we were informed she had a blood clot in her leg that wouldn’t dissolve and was cutting off the circulation. I granted permission for them to amputate her left leg. The doctors informed us they’d found cancer cells in the fluid from around her heart. In the midst of this Mom woke up, sans left leg, and was pissed! Her first act upon returning to the land of the living was pulling her ventilator out herself. She then croaked to the nurses she wanted to see me. I felt like a little kid again when she spoke. “Why was I on a ventilator?” “I wasn’t ready to let you go, Mom.” “You had no right to keep me alive, I could’ve been a vegetable?" “I didn’t think that far ahead.” “You get the social worker up here today, do you understand me?” “Yes Ma’am.” The hospital social worker visited after lunch. Mom filled out a DNR and NLM form. Once this was done, Mom began planning her life. She also wanted me back in college. I returned to college and Mom went to physical therapy to start familiarizing herself with her prosthetic leg. When dealing with her cancer, Mom said she’d start chemotherapy in January after the Holidays. She was putting in time at therapy and getting mobile. When she left the hospital, Mom chose to rehabilitate at the nursing home where she’d been a supervisor. This was supposed to be short term, until after chemo and her therapy. Mom made her plans for the Holidays. She picked out everybody’s Christmas presents. She requested and received a pass for Christmas; all systems were go. We had a nice celebration at home. When it was time to go back she wanted to ride around and look at Christmas lights. She was a fan of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and would declare any gaudily decorated house as Griswold Worthy. I remember that ride like it was yesterday and count it as my most precious memory, a true Holiday Blessing. It was Mom’s last Christmas.
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