One Month Later…

Sometimes I think I use this blog as a personal journal but in this moment, I don’t even care. I want to start this entry at the end instead of the beginning. Catherine has passed away. 

When I start a new blog post I always reread the last entry and, in this case, we had arrived in CT to start looking for a place to rent, with Catherine. And that’s what happened. I began the process of rental searching in a really expensive and tight market that I was completely unfamiliar with. With help from a local realtor and very exact requirements, we looked at a handful of apartments, condos and rental houses. We finally found a house that could work, met the owner, and came to an agreement to rent his home in Glastonbury, CT for a year. That Friday was a big decision making day. A year was too long, the rent and forthcoming utilities were steep, and Catherine was already shutting down her desire to live, making it really difficult for all of us caring for her. 

The days leading up to the “beginning of the end” were grueling. Catherine wasn’t thriving in any way. We had high hopes of a period of “normalcy” and, as we all tried to achieve that, Catherine became more and more confused and sad and had given up. I had never quite experienced someone who had absolutely given up on their lives but here we were. It didn’t matter what anyone said or how we chose to deliver the “coaching”, she was done. This all culminated into a stroke on Tuesday morning; the day we were suppose to sign that 1 year lease. 

Although Cassandra had already made the calls to the appropriate doctors for Catherine’s mental health and to hospice to achieve Catherine’s wishes, Catherine wasn’t going to improve. And for nearly 2 weeks, we, those that cared for Catherine, made certain that she did not die alone. We rotated around the clock sitting with her, telling her she was loved, feeding her pudding, assuring she was comfortable and pain free. On 7/25/22 at 0728 she took her last breath.

Kimberly and I will stay in this area for the month of August. It will be just fine to explore the area, eat some lobster, and spend some time with Cassandra and Josuel as we all try to figure out our path forward.

In other news, Kimberly is doing great with ASCOM. We have decided to move to Colorado after this chapter is over; likely the Aurora area. This is a blip in time and we have done what we came here to do. But of course, none of this chapter went as planned.

Maybe we should stop all this planning.

This is life on earth…