You never ever experienced seeing someone die in front of you… never in all your many decades of existence. Then, as fate always plays its cards, you sit with the one you love more than any other, and you watch them say goodbye. Well, they don’t say it, the cannot say it, because the illness will no longer allow that. So, they lay there on their side, because the nurses made it easier for them to continue on this death dance, and they gaze at you… silent. You are sitting by the bed, and you place your hand on theirs… and it is so damn cold, their hand! You reach down and kiss it, again and again, almost like a ritual. You just held a photo of the two of you taken when life had more promise and more joy. It was when you first found each other to become the very compliment each was missing for so long. She wanted to speak as she looked at the two of you, smiling. She couldn’t form any sound, but you could hear her happiness as she actually opened her mouth, even at this very ending. You told her how she would be free from the year long torture of the disease, eating away her energy and vitality. You kept holding her hand, like a drowning sailor grasping at the life preserver. As you finished asking her to watch over the little family she had: yours truly, her loving daughter and little Sis…and of course the two kitties you both adore, you got up from the chair and leaned over and kissed her forehead. After that one brief show of deep affection and caring… the nurse said, “She’s gone…7:01 AM”
You knew then that your Angel had awaited you to be there before she departed. And now, you must understand that she is by you now as you write this… because true and deep love can never really end.
PA Farruggio
July, 2026