Saturday - an Emotional Day
Aug
16
Written by:
8/16/2008 8:17 PM
Abigail headed out for a graduate school scholarship interview yesterday morning, while I took Mom to Breadworks on Broadway in Boulder. En route, Margie said she no longer wanted to try to extend her life. She's always been clear - as would be no surprise to anyone familiar with her pragmatic Hawkins lineage - that she hadn't wanted to fight her cancer or take heroic measures, but now she was making clear to all of us that she didn't want to do anything to extend her life - including another round of chemo.
Her nausea, abdominal pressure (from her tumors, not fluid build up as we had hoped), the disruption her cancer and treatment have caused her from her normal routine and control over her life all led to this decision. "Why go up just to delay the pain and go down again," was her comment.
At Breadworks, she met with Mack, George, John, Sydney, Arthur, and a host of other dear friends, keeping them entertained for several hours.
Afterwards, we returned to Mom's condo and met up with my sister Anne, and her daughters Abigail and Grace. The decision to call in hospice was made and us kids all had a good cry over this turn. Mom was content and even positive about her decision.
We spoke with brother Peter, sister Elisabeth, step-brothers Bob and Dave, Uncle Bill, Aunt Wib and a few others, but now want all of you to be aware of Margie's decision.
Abby asks a few questions that quickly led into a beautiful commentary on the robust, risk-taking, big personality of Margie's father, Glenn Hawkins.
In the evening we watched "Under the Tuscan Sun". Margie thought the movie a bit sappy and slow to get into the Tuscany scenery she was eager to see. Once there though, she happily rattled off all the Italian locations by sight!