One Week

One week ago today, my family said goodbye to my grandpa after many years of health issues and a few weeks of watching him deteriorate while he was doing hospice at home.

At 3:54 am on Friday, September 1st, my grandma called me at said "I don't think Grandpa's breathing." B and I had left their house at 8 pm on Thursday night and I just had a feeling in my gut (well, I'll give my nurse gut the credit, cuz that's usually spot on) that he wasn't going to make it through the night.

I had to hold my stethoscope to his chest and listen for a heartbeat that I knew, from the second I saw that my grandma had called, wouldn't be there. I had to tell my grandma that her husband of 62 years was gone. 

But the silver lining in all of this was that he CHOSE to go on hospice, he CHOSE to stay home. He got to CHOOSE how he spent his last days.

Working in healthcare has shown me that life is fragile and very few people get to choose their circumstances surrounding how their life ends. 

In the words of Grandpa,

"Be good. And if you can't be good, then have fun." ;)