I'm am writing this post from beautiful Texarcana, Texas! Dad, Ethan, and myself have traveled to North-East Texas because my Great-Aunt is not long for this world. About a month ago, she had a stroke, so we figured we should come visit her soon. Then, last night we got a call that she had been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer and they expected her to live 2 months without treatments, and 4 months with. Of course, they strongly recommended the no treatment route. So we started making plans to come up here this weekend. This morning we got a call that her kidneys had shut down. I immediately went home from work, we packed, and here we are, probably until Sunday. Her children have already signed the no heroic measures paperwork, which was an uncomfortable conversation that took place while I was standing there. To me, that's a no brainer. But one of her daughters had a 10-year-old that she made that decision for when he was dying of leukemia, and she basically freaked out and kept saying, "I CAN'T MAKE THAT DECISION AGAIN!" I wish that I had been in the waiting room for that portion. So, Memaw (which is what we call her) is wired up to all these tubes and wires and stuff and when I was in there, I wasn't sure if she was talking to me or just making random noise. It's sad, but I always have a hard time being very sad when an elderly person dies of illness or other natural causes.
So, that all explains why I'm here in Texarcana where everyone sounds like an extra from the set of King of the Hill (my relations included) and already ready to kill Ethan in a most horrifyingly graphic manner. :) At least I have the interweb!
