Heaven has gained an Angel - Our Mom Has Passed

     On Saturday evening February 15th, between 7:40 and 8:10 pm our mom passed away. We were lucky that she went as she wanted to go, without pain, in peace and quiet with her family surrounding her.

    In my previous post I write about mom wanting us all to gather together on Thursday, February 13th because she was ready to go, well she was and I believe she wanted to give us a heads up so we could all get to her bedside and say our goodbye.

    On Friday morning she was no longer responsive to us; she would move around and call for her sisters and reach her arms to Heaven as if someone was there waiting to take her and she was ready to go. The hospice nurse came by and said that mom was "transitioning" which meant that mom was entering the final stages of dying. She advised us to continued using the morphine, combined with an Ativan pill and mom drifted off peacefully to sleep and she remained that way throughout the day. The nurse told us moving forward we just needed to make sure mom was comfortable and safe, if she awoke and wanted food or water, we could give it to her in small doses.

    On Saturday I had errands I needed to run and groceries I needed to buy. My sister had spent the night so she stayed with mom. When I got home mom was still sleeping and my brothers were there. We started watching a movie and towards the end of the movie I saw mom take 8 big breaths and then settle back down. I went over to her and told her she was ok and that we were all there and to get some rest. I believe it was in that moment when she took those breaths that she died, but we didn't know it.

    We finished watching the movie and my baby brother was going to spend the night to stay with mom and I told him I wanted to show him how to give her the morphine. We prepared it and I showed him how to administer it and then told him he needed to place one pill under her tongue, he asked me to show him how. As I attempted to do so by touching mom's chin, I noticed she was cool to the touch, so I touched her cheek and her arms and hands and they also were cool. I looked at her chest and it was not moving and I told my brother, "Jaime, she's gone, she's not here anymore," and then he touched her, we looked at each other and laughed that mom had left on her own terms without fuss or muss and we instantly called our other brother and sister to come back to the house, which they did immediately.

    We called hospice and they advised us they would send someone as soon as possible and they would contact the funeral home.

    We stayed with mom and with each other until they came for her. It was a sad but happy time for us. We knew mom was no longer suffering and we were happy she had not had any true pain, just some discomfort. We spoke of what a party there was at that moment in Heaven and remembered all the people that had gone before her and that were there to receive her with open arms.

    Our mother is gone, but she will never be forgotten.