The long and short of it is my mother passed today, after being in hospice for five days. Prior to that she had been in the hospital for about a week. She had a stroke and had deteriorated rapidly. Unfortunately, the stroke affected her throat and she was unable to swallow or to prevent food from coming up and into her lungs. Have to say it was one of the more painful experiences for me, (and obviously for her) to watch her wasting away. The Lord finally took mercy on her and took her this morning. I've not been here much, simply because I wanted to spend as much time with her as I possibly could.
I'm really not one for exposing my pain or sorrow in public, but here I am. What makes this harder for me, is it is nearly 4 years to the day that my father passed. It's hard being thrust into the position of patriarch and "chief adult" of the family, but it is my duty to my family. Still working out all the details, and trying to get all the family gathered. So I may be a little bit out of sorts for a while, but I hope to start the grieving and recovery process. There's obviously more to do, but I won't bore you with the details.
Thanks for being here. You are my other family. To be honest, I think you all are better behaved at times.