I’m a 68 year old woman who grew up in a household with a huge extended family … my father, had two brothers and six sisters and over the years these people have left an indelible mark on my life.
I sometimes think that along with Walt Disney these people gave me an impossible understanding of family and relationships. Impossible to live up to that is….
For the last several years, the only remaining member of my father’s siblings has been my aunt Marigold, the youngest of his siblings.
She is a teacher and a librarian. She is ever the lady. She is the epitome of kindness and generosity with just a taste enough of adventure and bitch. She raised her twin boys, my youngest cousins by herself because her husband made an exit stage left very early in their lives. She did a good job. Her boys are kind and generous, and have great hearts. They are great cooks and often traditionalists.
She is currently in hospital dying. I don’t understand what happened. All of a sudden she stopped being able to breathe well and now they’ve decided that she’s palliative. My sister says that she is basically in heart and lung failure.
She has told my cousin that she is ready, that she’s lived a good life and she doesn’t want any extraneous measures taken.
We have gone through this 8 times with her siblings including my father as well as my mother, and all of their partners. Not to mention both of her parents, my grandparents. That’s just on my father’s side of the family.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again… Getting old ain’t for sissies.
I am not ready for this…but it ain’t about me now…is it?