Some of you knew that my father was very ill and
home on hospice saw us off before our flight out here
on Wednesday night. For those of you who don't know
the story, Paul had been sick and convalescing for the
past five years or so. Shortly before Christmas he
was admitted to a local hospital near their home in
Montclair, New Jersey for pneumonia and a bladder
infection. While recovering from the pneumonia, he
suffered a heart attack.
Paul and the family chose to bring him home and call in hospice instead of
continuing to patch him together with medical
interventions. We arrived on Thursday morning
(January 18) and have been staying with my family
since. For three days we spent time with Paul in the
room they'd made up for him and took shifts during the
night so he was never alone. Unfortunately, he was
unresponsive on these last few days, so although we
talked to him a lot, he was unable to respond except
for a few eyebrow raises. On Friday we celebrated
my sister Marion's birthday with Paul and had
cake and champagne - too bad he couldn't have any!
He passed on at 5:45 in the morning on Sunday, January
22nd. We were all urging him to go, but he
had always been late for things in life and took his
time on the way out as well. It was peaceful and
quiet - he simply stopped breathing and slipped out
without a sound.
Here's a link to the local newspaper obituary
so you can all know a little more about him. (It
should go straight to it, but may require you to enter a
zip code and other info, and a little scan down the
list of obituaries in the Star Ledger newspaper for his name. sorry about that.)
Emma and I will be staying here through the week so
that we can attend the funeral mass/memorial on
Saturday, and should be flying home on Sunday. Things
are sad here, but a lot of support and love is also
going around. The free meals have been showing up on
the porch, and many friends are calling to offer any
help they can. We both feel very fortunate to have
caught Paul before he left, and to have contributed to
his comfort during his last few days. Emma was pleased
to find that she hasn't been in the way at all, and
that her beginning nursing student knowledge and
cooking skills have been very appreciated!
My thoughts are with you bro ...