After over 5 years living in this developing country and seeing the suffering, my eyes were opened, my heart awaken.
When she, swollen and hurting, lost and broken, went home and there was nothing I could do,
I wept.
I wept because I used to work in Scottsdale where no one settled for anything but the best for their ailing loved one.
At Mayo Clinic you don't do anything second best,
You do every last thing until their's satisfaction and peace.
Great peace.
Because dying is scary, but, I've seen it done well.
That midnight on-call visit I had when the wife whispered into her beloved's ear, "Go home Dear, it's okay. Go to Jesus."
That was beauty.
After the "Hooray for you" entry into the world,
It can be followed by a peaceful, "Praise to Him" heading out of the world.
It rarely happens like that here,
The entrance,
Or the exit.
But now, after the awakening within me,
And, the "public health emergency" the world is finally recognizing (BBC latest),
And, being on a continent that needs more than Tylenonl (ONE campaign article),
I, with fear and trembling, because as she said the other day, "This is going to hurt"
I willingly walk forward.
Starting to talk about palliative care and end of life in a nation where they say,
"No, I couldn't care for someone dying in my home. That would take too much courage."
I don't come with morphine,
Or a trained doctor at my side,
Or a brainy academic understanding of AIDS,
What I do come with is this,
I KNOW THE HEALER.
He who said there is "a time to be born and a time to die..."
Didn't want her to suffer as she did....I'll call her courage
I'm willing to work on the exit.
To be continued...
