The End

After moving my mom into her beautiful room she seemed to struggle quite a bit to get comfortable. We don't know if it was the move or if it was just her getting worse. She moaned pretty much every time she would breathe. They were giving her morphine every 30min. At one point we had considered leaving to sleep at our normal place. We decided to each take time alone with mom. As Laura was in with her I was texting Courtney to tell her that I was going in. She told me to make sure I said everything I wanted and that I would know what I needed to say. As I was saying all that, I was thinking, why are we going back tonight? We should probably just stay the night. Pretty much as I was thinking that, Laura came out of the room saying I am not going home tonight, you can, but I'm not. I was like absolutely not, I will stay. So, we decided to let Frankie have some alone time and Laura and I went to hit up the McDonald's at 11pm. That is a fine time to eat a greasy burger.

When Laura and I returned, mom really hadn't stopped moaning and was having some trouble. We continued to keep her filled with morphine and a couple other things were done for fluid. At one point, I sent a text message to my aunt Marsha and said is it silly that I want you to come tell her stories? She is a great story teller and I just thought maybe it would help calm her down. As we were texting, we got the idea to turn on some relaxation music. With the music, morphine with Adavan in her mouth and few tricks for helping with the fluid in her throat, and then a shot of morphine certainly not 30 min after the one in her mouth, she finally started to relax. Her breathing changed and her moaning finally started to slow. This continued and continued and the realization that the end was near became very obvious. Laura and I were right by her side. She opened her eyes and looked to us as if she knew that it was time, we told her we all loved her and quickly called my sister. And then it was over. It was very peaceful and actually became very relaxing because the moaning and the labored breathing was gone. And of course the pain was gone.

As noted above, we were already getting Marsha heading our way, but were able to catch her before she left without Mary. They arrived shortly after being called and we were all able to say goodbye. It was a wonderful gathering with Frankie, Sandy, Marsha, Mary, Laura, and I. We were able to share stories and in the happiness there was in being in a part of mom's, Margie's, Marj's, or Marjorie's life. To all of you that were on the journey with us we thank you for your thoughts and well wishes. We look forward to celebrating Marj's life at some point with each of you.