Where is the blog? Did Life
Opening Up shut down?
Well, not exactly. I think about writing but nowadays have
little time for it and even less time for the reflection out of which the
writing arises.
Why? Because my older sister has been in hospital since the
27 June. She is seriously ill and I am her primary caretaker. I am her voice at
the nurses’ station.
The time I spend with her each day has taught me much: how
to be a strong advocate for what she needs, how to quietly accompany her as she
struggles to breathe. I know now the names of the various nurses who tend her,
where the fridge is for the salad that I brought her from Garelick and Herbs
that she doesn’t finish eating, and how to monitor her exercises on her walker,
which are designed to prevent blood clots from forming.
A strange situation: one I never thought would happen; at
the same time one that I have always known would happen. She has had emphysema for
years. This is the second infection/pneumonia in three months. Her last
hospital stay was five days; this is a different, a more serious story.
And so, discounting this note, I have ceased for the time
being to write. I don’t know how long this hiatus will last; perhaps I can
manage a blip now and then. There are many hospital stories to tell—like when
the A/C was freezing her and the weekend tech couldn’t fix it, or the special
kindness of the nurse who taught her how to watch movies on her I pad: our
shared laughter over childhood remembrances and our intimate conversations
about our relationship over the years—but they must all wait until my day to day involvement ceases and some peaceful digestion of this
experience occurs within me.
Thanks for reading this. I’ll be seeing you.
