Caregiving when Dad was released from the hospital to come home for hospice they insisted that he constantly be on oxygen low, whirring concentrator in his room long green tubing before his trek to the living room each morning, then back again for naps and at night, he’d ask for the cannula to be removed…
Category: family
NPM – 23 of 30
It’s been 5 months today since the day I describe below. ~~ “did he give you a good story for the day he died?” – “The Funeral” by Lindsay White when we could no longer lift him when it took four paramedics to get him back to the bedroom when he was barely able to…
NPM – 20 of 30
Winter Solstice on the longest night of the year my father told us he was ready to die driving home, those lines popped in my head so I knew this poem had to come at some point it’s impossible to exist in these two roles daughter, poet without overlap ~~ his decision was both shocking…
Dad’s 78th
Yesterday was a tough day. April 21 is the day my dad was born back in 1940. He would have been 78 yesterday. This post came up on my FB memories yesterday from 2016: 6 years ago, my mom, dad, sister, her kid & her husband met up in Las Vegas to celebrate my dad’s…
NPM – 11 of 30
no funeral when Dad first got very sick he and my mother made their arrangements Rose Hills would handle everything cremation, simple details, nothing elaborate when it came time to use these services, it still took time and money, though not much I was uncomfortable in the mortuary office it was pouring down rain and…
NPM – 10 of 30
The Magical Cheeseburger it was the day after Christmas it was Dad’s 5th full day at home this day, a Tuesday, would have been a dialysis day before, but instead it was the second appointment he missed we followed our standard daily procedure he rang his bell or called out to indicate he was ready…
NPM – 7 of 30
This prompt was: write someone you love a proper heaven a proper heaven 1. for you, Jeffrey Joe, the sun shines all the time and falls perfectly across your table of course, there is music the guests who grace your kitchen are people whose music you’ve always played, Hoagy Carmichael, Nat King Cole, Hank Williams,…
NPM – 5 of 30
Lift Team the day he came home, he told them to put him in his recliner in the living room it was early evening Mom made him something to eat then she & I listened to the nurse when he was ready for bed Mom & I each got on a side, put an arm…
NPM – 3 of 30
Today marks 3 months since my dad died. Poem from Inside His Hands when the man takes to his bed he starts on his left side and puts his left arm out so that I am facing up, my palm exposed sometimes I am slightly cupped my other rests along his side he likes to…
NPM – 30 of 30
So I’ll admit that I’m fudging a little bit here. I wrote something new last night, and I thought I would post it here. But I’m not quite ready to have it be seen. So I’m going to post this other piece I wrote in New Mexico. It’s an ‘identity’ poem where you consider memories…
the rest of the week
After the disappointment of Wednesday night, the rest of the weekend has been pretty good. On Thursday, out of nowhere, I decided to see a movie. Instead of a variety of Oscar-nominated films I could have chosen, I selected “Winchester” starring Helen Mirren. It’s about Sarah Winchester, heiress to the Winchester rifle company fortune and…
NPM – 25 of 30
I hate to leave things hanging, though, inevitably, it’s exactly what I do especially with regard to this blog. I abandoned the December reflections after my dad went into the hospital. I plan to write a lot more about what happened in December, but for now, I’ll say that my dad died on January 3,…
