Once again, your experience knocks all others out of the running! You have such a gift for telling stories, the true kind. (this is true, right?) Spare, incisive, compelling. And oh so short as to be brutally to the point.
If you hadn't taken care of Betty, would no one else have done it? Not her mother? Did you do it for her? For your father? To apologize for your father? I don't think I would have. Did anyone show gratitude for what you did for her? Something tells me no
Yes, true, every word. Betty wanted to die at home and was screaming blue murder in the hospice, being disruptive. They wanted rid of her. Nobody would step up to take her. She only had weeks left if that. She was clutching at me, begging me to take her out. I didn't want to, but how could I refuse and live with myself?
Gratitude, No! But I didn't expect any. I didn't go to the funeral and apparently her mother was outraged and accused me of having had some hand in her daughter's demise. My father acted abominably throughout the whole thing but he never could cope with anyone being sick. Sickness is all in the mind, he used to say. Ironic!
Edit: Thanks for the reblog!
I love your stories!
Some mother that Betty had. Wouldn't care for her herself, not even for a few weeks, but was outraged about the way you did it. There have been a great many colorfully dark persons in your life.
Nora was as tough as nails, an ex-moneylender. I suppose there have been a lot of dark people in my life. Shit! What does that say about me?:)