At Least....

I am so grateful that Far Away Sister and I are on the same page. We think that we are the only one who have contact with Dad daily at this point. Far Away Sister called Dad this morning and woke him from a sound sleep. Not very talkative or with it.

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I called him this afternoon. He didn't answer the first time. When I tried again 15 minutes later, he answered, telling me he had been sound asleep. He wasn't very talkative. He didn't respond to the conversation, though he did ask me what time it was. I had to tell him 4 or 5 times in various ways before he understood what time it was.

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Far Away Sister called this evening. She'd been calling Dad for 45 minutes. He wasn't responding. She called me because I was the only one who would understand her concern or recognize his ongoing decline. She talked to Sister today, who told the nursing home he wasn't ready for hospice because he was stable. Yup. He's stable. Each time we've called today it has been harder to rouse him. If he's lucky, he won't wake up in the morning. Brother and Sister will be shocked. Far Away Sister and I will be relieved. We will grieve, and grieve deeply. But we will no longer be haunted by the thought that he's so anxious at night that he pushes the call button 18 times in an hour. We will know he's at peace.