I suppose today 'started' yesterday - with a crisis with my Godmother. She wanted a doctor to come and see her as she was getting very breathless, and her legs were swelling. The surgery sent a paramedic, who was desperate to admit my godmother to hospital as there were sufficient symptoms to make this an urgent necessity. Well, it took the combined urging of the paramedic, myself, and Best Beloved to overcome her reluctance, but eventually, off she went. I rang an hour or so later, and she had been given a bed in the A and E and that's all they could tell me at that stage. I rang again after 10pm, and there was no further news - she was still in A and E. We went to bed (and slept very ell, knowing she was in safe hands.)
When the phone rang at 7am this morning, I kind of had a premonition of what had happened - the doctor was clearly more than a little careful when he told me that she had died in the night, being given every possible care to make her comfortable. She had given strict instructions that we were NOT to be contacted until the morning - that we should be allowed to have a peaceful night. That is SO like her. She had obviously made a great impression on the staff!
I'm so glad that we persuaded her to go in - I couldn't bear the thought of her becoming even more ill while alone at home, with no help, not palliative care to ease her, which the paramedic said was a real possibility.
We went to the hospital to collect her belongings, and then to her house to check lights and so on, lower the heating from tropical to temperate, and clear the fridge, tidy the kitchen, find her papers etc. We can't do much more until the coroner has finished doing his/her stuff; as death occurred so soon after being admitted there has to be some kind of scrutiny and discussion of the cause of death before the certificate can be issued.
I'm sad at her passing - but glad that she went before the cancer had made her life a real misery, and after such a short illness. It really was just a couple of days of being bothered by the breathing difficulty and the legs, as far as I know (she wasn't very good at being totally straight with us) and I think she was so pleased to be back in her own home, with the carers coming in every day to keep and eye and help her with this and that. On the whole I think she was the winner in this, managing to escape what would could have been a very difficult future.
Home again, or rather, to the local polling station. If we had gone straight home we would never have been able to make ourselves go out into the horrible weather.
Phone calls to close family, to the various people like the carers, the podiatrist, the cleaner, all due to come in over the next few days.
Supper.
Advent calendars! Oh yes! What a good idea! Chocolate! It really has been that kind of day.
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