Sad

My sister-in-law Hanna died last Monday, the 7th March. This was very sad. She had many things wrong with her which I won’t go into, but the expectation was for between 5 to 7 months more of life. It turned out to be just a few days. We’d arranged a family gathering on the 5^th March and Angelique (her daughter) had concealed the fact it was for her but when we all began arriving, the penny dropped that it was for her. She enjoyed it, hardly eating but having quality moments with members of her family.

When she arrived home, she took a turn for the worse, her breathing became difficult and she required a ventilator. Her daughter stayed with her and had no sleep at all as Hanna had to vomit even from consuming water. Astrid and myself relieved Angelique, and stayed over Sunday night. I caught a couple of hours sleep and poor Astrid none. Watching her sister struggle to breathe, body racked with pain, was awful for Astrid. Angelique, bless her, arrived early Monday morning and it was agreed I drove home to get some sleep.

After just a few hours at home, Astrid rang me to pick her up and bring her home to Heino. Hanna’s own doctor arrived and gave her a double dose of morphine, it was almost an induced coma, and took her off the ventilator. As the situation hadn’t changed, Astrid and I decided we could do no more, so drove back home. After a few hours at home we got the news that she had passed away.

The funeral was yesterday Monday 14^th. Obviously it was nice to see the turn out of her family and friends but it was a sad event given the circumstances.