My mom's health has been declining for sometime now with lung disease. I'm thinking she may have 6 months or a year left, maybe, I mean God only knows, I'm just wondering if anyone else has worried a lot on how to deal with missing them and grief afterward? I'm just close with my mom, and lived together last ten years also so I wonder if I should get a new home or feel closer to her staying in same place? So odd how so many issues come to mind when you "try" to prepare yourself for a death of a close loved one. Thanks and God bless.
She has suffered tremendous pain for 2.5 years due to nerve issues (back and leg) making walking extremely difficult and sometimes she could not walk. I thought I was gonna lose it myself watching her in pain. I worried she would die. I probably need some therapy for this. But, I understand pre-death anxiety.
Yes! that is right! I often wonder if I will go before my mom and husband.
But for the present, keep on loving and doing God's will!
both parents had dementia, incontinence, bedridden, and other major health issues. they were declining quickly and I knew it. hospice came in and helped out. at that time I thought I was prepared to handle it. dad went in my arms and mom went three weeks later with me by her side. I fell apart. I lost it. I never expected to have them both go so close to each other to begin with. The lose is so painful even though I thought I had worked it out in my mind. when you are caring for people you love you can never be prepared for their death... its been about five weeks or so since their death and I still cant except the fact that they are gone. its just to painful. The only peace that I can find is that they are together ....
I hope that you are able to handle what comes down the road for you.
good luck.
Love and Light💜💝💜
After my husband passed away 14 years ago, I kept working and kept the house, most of the the time with a friend living with me. I finally sold it about four years ago--that was a job, cleaning it out and dealing with stuff that Dad and I had not dealt with. I was able to move in with a daughter whose kids were out of the house in college, and her sister is local as well.
About six months before my husband passed (after 10 years of recurring lymphoma), he told me that God gives us a lot a choices in life, but this was not one of them. Later, there were times I had to tell myself that there was nothing I could do to change it, and I needed to just do the best I could. I have been well taken care of by my family, my business (I am still running the business my husband started before I met him and that we did together for 40 years), friends, church, and of course God. It has been amazing the things that have worked out for me that I could not have predicted or even guessed.
Not just elders. We can lose our children, grandchildren, closest friends at any time or day. This a very sobering fact but it has really helped me to accept that I am not in charge of the universe.
Appreciate them while they are here. Done and done.
My mom just went from her AL to the ER and they refused to keep her for the requisite three days in the hospital but referred her back to skilled nursing. This means that Medicare will not pay; we have to pay $9,000/mo. Out of pocket.
My husband is MISERABLE in his skin and in his mind. He cannot regulate his body temperature, feels like he is freezing, wears four layers of clothes, sweats through it all--and spends all night trying to "dry" his four layers. The night before last he got up and started a fire in the wood stove that was ROARING and shut the door to the room. It was like a Navajo sweat lodge. Frightening!!!!!!!!! He thought this would dry the clothes on his body. Every night I have to redress him in the middle of the night. Last night he went down the stairs in the pitch dark--and he tells me he feels unsteady on his feet.
So, put all these facts together and what have you got? A fresh hell every day and very expensive. How much longer?
Am I proud of the way I am feeling? No. I love them both but neither of them is really enjoying life. Both of them are scaring me to death. In truth, I lost them long ago to this disease. So, losing them to death does not feel as painful as it would have done years ago.
So, yes, pre-death anxiety.
For me, knowing that this life is but a brief (but important!) period of time in our eternal existence, knowing that my loved ones who have passed are still existing, on another plane..this all brings me a great deal of comfort. My daddy passed 13 years ago, and I often feel his presence when I am down or sad. Also my grandmother, who has been gone over 25 years.
Mother isn't doing well. She has a cold right now, but a cold for her almost always turns into pneumonia, and driving home from her place the other day, I had the overwhelming feeling that we aren't going to have her around a lot longer. She is simply wearing out. I'm grateful she has pre-planed everything, so when she goes, it should be easy on us kids. I really appreciate that!
I guess, because of my faith, I don't stress out about these things. I'm trying to just embrace the time I have with mother, still sad because we have not had a great relationship and she's got too much dementia to really have any kind of in depth conversation.
I'm sorry for what you are going through. A lot of us are in the same boat....mixed feelings, wanting our LO to have a quality of life, but knowing they are tired and really probably want to "move on".