Writing Prompt #5 - Losing a Parent

 Losing a Parent

    You always think that you have more time, but life doesn't care sometimes. One minute you have them and the next, they're gone. I am just one of many that has lost a parent unexpectedly; doesn't mean that my story is any less important.

    My mom, according to my dad had been having trouble walking, and that she had fallen a couple times. Now if you knew my mom like I did, I can guarantee that even if in pain, she was prideful and didn't want help. She grew up in a rough household and had to be strong to make it into adulthood. Her father was abusive towards my grandmother, and sometimes claimed that my mom wasn't even his kid. I remember a story my mom told me about how he was choking her, and my mom ran out of the house and stayed away for several hours. So ever since then, my mom became super independent, sometimes stubborn. I can relate, I too can be stubborn when it comes to asking for help. After the third fall, my dad finally convinced her to go to the emergency room.

    I had received a call a work, which was unusual. My dad never called my direct work line before, so I became wary of the reason. He told about her falls and that she was in the ER, and that she was having great difficulty breathing. My supervisor was compassionate, and go me out of there as soon as he could. Once I finally made it to the hospital, she had been stabilized. Of course I was relieved. The nurse told us that she wasn't out of the woods and would have to kept there, timeline unknown.

    Days later, it had been discovered that she had multiple infections within her body, and that the hospital was giving her different medication to help combat her symptoms. Sadly her condition only grew worse, to the point where she was put on a ventilator to keep her breathing. They tried other medications, but had little effect. After a week, the doctors and my dad decided to remove the ventilator to see see if she could breath on her own. She wasn't able to. I lost my mom that day. My dad called and told me that she opened her eyes briefly, and then was gone. Cause of death had been determined to be sepsis from several bodily infections that had festered too long and had spread through her entire body, taking deadly toxins with it.

    Her death hit me harder than I thought it would. All through my life I normally kept my emotions to myself and appeared stoic most of the time. I couldn't contain myself this time. I cried off an on for solid hour. I then decided that I needed to go for my dreams and to not live with regrets. Her love of writing spurred me into taking one of hobbies, writing like her, and turn it into a career. Since then I have self published one book on Amazon with two more in progress. While alive, she almost had a book of her own published, but unfortunately the company went bankrupt. I consider my progress as continuing what she started. I hope she is proud of what I have done. I love you mom.

 

Janet Novak

January 19, 1955 - September 16, 2019