Nan had many visitors today. The end is coming and no one is pretending otherwise. This is so wise, so simple - and so rare that we are able to experience it in this gentle but raw, unprocessed way.
There is a woman in a hospital bed. She does not speak, but people speak to her - lovingly, teasingly, cheerfully, gently -and touch her and rub her hands and wash her face. She opens her eyes from time to time but there is not really any way to know for sure what she can see, hear, or understand. She is lovely, her face softened.
The room is small and light and cozy. There seems to be space enough for anyone who wants to be there. There are cards, posters, flowers, pictures. This is a space for love and goodbye, and you cannot be there without weeping, and I cannot write this without weeping, yet I am overcome more with love than grief, more with memory than loss.
Here is such beauty. In this room, Nan's presence is strong even as her spirit is letting go of her body. Her presence is alive in all the people who surround her now, and we all know, we know together as one, her death cannot change that.
~~~~~
Standing by is about Nan and her daughter.
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