written By
I think that, in the end, my mother died a peaceful death. I wasn’t there,
missed it by forty minutes. The call came at 6:00 a.m. I knew before I
answered. I showered and started the three hour drive I now knew by heart.
The cleanup of coffee spilt in my lap delayed me. My two sisters were there
and sang Mom’s favorite hymns. Both my sisters inherited my mother’s strong
singing voice. I was glad I missed that part, the hymn singing. Mom was
partially propped up in her bed in the home when I arrived. Ruthie, her
roommate, was watching ‘The Sound of Music.’ She watched it every day. An
aid came in to put Mom’s teeth in, important she explained, before the body
stiffened. A very old lady appeared in her housecoat, stood at the end of the
bed, smiled and said ‘Good bye Rose.’ One sister left, the one who had refused
to participate throughout the punishing struggle of Mom’s last months. The
other sat across the bed from me and we talked over the dead body between
us. She is the eldest. She had developed a tick below one eye. Once I had
offered, ‘I think we’ll miss her when it’s over’ and my sister had looked up at
me in disbelief. We went through the three small drawers in the dresser near
the bed and chose some suitable clothing. Tucked in a corner we found
Ruthie’s teeth. They had been missing for weeks.
