Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Harry did it his way

The other day, I got a note in the mail from my mother-in-law.

Harry, a dear old friend of her mother's, was gone. His death was no surprise, given that he had just celebrated his 100th birthday a couple of weeks ago.

Harry had lived a good wife, even though he'd spent far too much of it without his beloved Alice, who had passed on many years before. But he was all there, right up to the end, and the story of his final few days is worth hearing.

So, here is the note that his daughter sent out to his friends. I don't think any more words are needed.

Our Dad has passed away

Hi everyone

I know you will want to know that Dad died peacefully this morning. We knew that he didn't want to live after his 100th. I had two wonderful phone calls with him on Easter Sunday, and again the following day. He sounded like his "old self", very positive and interested in what we were doing, better than any calls I had for about six months. Then on Wednesday he said that he was tired of living and wasn't going to get out of bed again. By Friday he was not responding enough to even give him tylenol, and the doctor was called for injected pain relief to keep him comfortable. He went into a coma shortly after.

We can't be upset, because he did have a wonderful life until the last year or so when he really lost all the independence that he was so proud of. He is much happier where he is now, with my mother.

He really enjoyed all the cards and letters he received for his birthday. We read them with him while we were there, and he talked about them in all the phone calls I had since returning home.

I have organized his obituary that will appear in the Victoria and Regina papers.

Dad's wish for many months has been to not have a funeral. All of you that were at his party would be the same ones that would come to a funeral, so I guess we just had it a little early and he was there to enjoy it!

Thanks for being such a good support to our dad.

1 comment:

Paul said...

I always hear about the will to live. First time I've heard about the will to die.