Hi Everyone.
I just wanted to share a story from last Monday night. Heidi was a beautiful, fun loving, strong, strong, strong woman. She fought until the day she died.
For the better part of a week before she died, she was in and out of lucidity. She would be coherent one minute and incoherent the next and as the week went on, she was spending less and less time with us. On the night before she died, I had the news on in our room with the volume low to help her take her mind off our immediate situation, and Heidi always scoured the news for any kind of hope. A piece came on the news about a "Flu Shot Soup." Which was a Vietnamese restaurant's culinary answer to the flu season here. In Heidi's mind, this story was a story about a just announced cure for ALS.
She did not hear the actual story, rather the story she desperately wanted to hear. She looked at me clear as day and in a strong voice said "Bill, call Amy, tell her that they found a cure. (*Amy was Heidi's Hospice Nurse*) SIT ME UP! THIS IS BIG, MY LIFE IS ON THE LINE." Lisa and I looked at each other, thinking the same thing..."What is she talking about???"
I realized she was watching the News, so I went to 9News.com to find the story that had roused her so. In the mean time, we called Amy and got her voice mail. I am sure it is a very strange voicemail. Heidi had not spoken that clearly all week except for just a few times when she was agitated. Once I found the story link on 9News.com I played it and asked Heidi if that was the story she had seen. She looked sad, nodded and fell back into her "other place." She died the next night.
I just wanted you to know that she never never never gave up.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Bill, I grieve with you at your loss. I hope that the brief moments our life intersected through our H-4 Palm Villa home in Hawaii created a fond memory and treasure for you and the girls. I am a man of faith so my prayers are with you all.
ReplyDeleteBill, you never gave up either, and I'm sure that your strength helped keep her strong as much as her strength helped all of us. She is an amazing example to all of us, and has inspired hundreds of us to be better people. Thanks for sharing. love, k
ReplyDeleteBill,.....and we shan't give up either. I shall continue to raise awareness and donate funds towards a cure for ALS, as I know many of us will. As you know, our sweet Heidi was as worried for others with ALS as she was for herself. What a beautiful thing it would be if we could be a further part of finally finding a cure, in her honor. I miss her so much, K
ReplyDelete