It would be any day now was what the hospice nurses told the family.

Any day now.

Their mom had already stopped waking up. They still went to the hospital every single day and sat with her and talked to her and spent time painting her nails and just being with their mother. It didn't matter that she was no longer able to talk to them. At this point the family only allowed immediate family to visit. Their mom wasn't looking too good and they knew that she didn't want lots of people seeing her that way.

After she lost her hair and lots of weight she avoided going to places where she thought she could run into people she used to know when she was healthy. She hated seeing the look of pity on their faces when they saw her and how frail she was. It always brought tears to her eyes seeing friends and family for the first time and seeing how uncomfortable they were around her. It was that reason alone that the family decided that when the time came they would have a closed casket. It was done out of respect for their mom. Everyone loved her so much and wanted to do what they felt she would want.

With the end closer than anyone wanted, the husband's mother came to town to be with him during this horrible time. She wanted to be with her son and help in whatever way she could. She spent the nights at the hospital with him. The daughters thought it was a good thing and liked his mother. So it was a good thing she was there. The daughters ended up spending a lot of alone time with his mother. It didn't matter that she was in town and at the hospital the husbands constant disappearing didn't stop. He had no shame disappearing for hours and leaving his mother in the hospital room with his dying wife and her children, people she didn't really know.

It had to be awkward for the husband's mom to keep being asked where her son was when the family would come visit. Not even having his mother there deterred the husband from leaving his wife for hours at a time. The mother would just shrug her shoulders and say she didn't know where her son was.

When enough time would pass and the husband felt that he should be seen, he would come in, say hi to whoever was visiting and then his phone would ring and off for another hour or so he'd go. The husband never had his phone out of his hand or off his ear. The daughters being fed up would vocally asked if anyone in the room knew who he was talking to. They didn't expect anyone to actually have a clue, but they wanted everyone to beware of his behavior so that when the time was right and everything came out they would be able to think back and remember his behavior.

On one occasion as soon as the mother's children got to the hospital for the day the husband told them that he was going to take his mother to the cafeteria for a quick breakfast. Hours passed and neither one had returned. The daughters didn't miss not having them there, it was already to the point where seeing the husband was infuriating. It was always a better day for them when he was gone and they were able to spend time with their mom alone. That being said it still bothered them that he no longer tried to hide the fact that he was gone all day. That he rather spend time away from his dying wife. That behavior would bother anyone.

The youngest daughter had a security system installed that detected motion and recorded it and sent a notification to her phone. After checking the notification she saw the movement was the husband. Seeing him on the cameras meant he wasn't even at the hospital like he said he was. He had left the hospital and hadn't felt the need to let anyone know. It was as if he wanted to keep the fact that he left a secret, to keep up the facade of the sad grieving husband who couldn’t bear to be away from his wife's side.

The fact that he left wasn't a problem for the daughters, the problem was that he didn't say anything to anyone. Why keep the fact that you left a secret? If they hadn't seen him on the camera there was no telling if he’d even say anything. What if something had happened to the mother and he wasn't there? Did he not think of that? Did he not care?

All kinds of thoughts ran through both daughter's minds. How often did he leave without saying anything? What was so important that he felt the need to leave? Why not tell anyone? Did he leave at nights when the mom was there alone? Did he drug his wife up on extra medication so he could leave and know she’d stay asleep all night? Those questions they knew they'd never get the answers to. That would mean the husband had to be honest and quite frankly honesty was the last thing they expected from him.

The daughters being fed up decided to let the husband know they saw him on the camera by texting him. He replied with yeah and that was all. Just a one word response. It made it seem as if he was annoyed that they knew he was gone. Not long after getting a hold of the husband he returned to the hospital, but it ended up being just to leave his mother in the room alone with the daughters to "make a quick call''.

Later that same day the youngest daughter's husband went to the hospital in the evening to pick her up and walked through the waiting room and witnessed the husband laughing and eating with his family members that had come to the hospital to see him during his difficult time. Sad thing was he didn't seem as if he was having a difficult time at all, laughing and posing for numerous pictures.

What set this apart from taking the average pictures with family members, these pictures were with the husband posing in a kneeling position while gesturing the peace symbol with his hands while his friends and family sat awkwardly behind him in the hospital chairs. It was as if he thought being down in the waiting room having a photo shoot was more important than spending time with his wife during her last few days.

When the husband returned some time later he couldn't help boasting about his photo shoot, even before asking how his wife had been doing. Now that might not seem all that bad, but when that along with all the other odd behaviors combined it was annoying.

A hospice nurse came to see the mother and family on a daily basis. On numerous occasions the family was told she could go at any time, that they were surprised she was still hanging on as long as she was.

Everyone knew it was because this woman had always been a strong powerful woman, she always fought with everything she had in her. The nurse went on to say that sometimes a mother and wife didn't want to pass with her family present. That sometimes they need time to themselves to pass. She encouraged the family to give their mother some alone time to do what she needed to do. That made a lot of sense to the family. It was something that they would consider.

The husband and his mother left the hospital to run errands. By that point him leaving was no surprise, at least this time he'd let someone know he was leaving instead of sneaking out like a coward.

After talking to their mom and making sure the nurses cleaned their mom's wound and she was given her proper medication the youngest daughter decided to ask her her brother and sister who were also there visiting if they thought they should leave and see if what the hospice nurse said was right. That their mother was waiting for alone time to go in peace. All three kids were in agreement that they would go down to the cafeteria and have coffee and come right back up in twenty minutes. After hugging and kissing their mother and telling her they loved her and she should do what she needed to do they walked down to the cafeteria.

Not even fifteen minutes had passed before the daughter got a call from the husband. He was frantic and asked very loudly where everyone was. Why they left the mother alone? His questions were fine, it was the tone in his voice that was upsetting. He acted as if what they had done was wrong. After explaining their actions he calmed down.(Little did they know, the husband would hold this action in and throw it in their faces later on to hurt them.) It hadn’t been the mothers time to go. She hadn’t been ready which was both a good and bad thing to the children. They loved and wanted their mother to stay with them, but at the same time they just wanted her suffering to end. That was the one and only time they all left her alone.

Thanksgiving came and it would of course be spent in the hospital. No one felt like celebrating the holiday, but the son made it a point to bring a plate of food to his sisters so they could have some sort of holiday with their mother. That meant a lot to them.

Not long after Thanksgiving was the son's birthday. November 29th. It was talked about and hoped that the mother wouldn’t pass on her son's birthday. It was a big worry for all but no one actually thought it would happen.

It in fact did happen.

On November 29th 2019 their beautiful and loving mother passed away on her son's birthday.

After spending the day at the hospital the children left for the night. They hadn't been gone an hour before they got the devastating call. Even though everyone knew it was to happen at any moment it was still an unbelievable shock. Their mom did in fact wait until all her family was out of the room to pass away. The kids were at home for the night and the husband had stepped out to use the restroom.

There was so much sadness...

Everyone made their way back to the hospital to say their goodbyes and to just hold and be with their mom as long as they possibly could for the last time. Never had anyone cried so much in that hospital room. This woman was so loved and would be so missed. There was no denying everyone there loved this woman. That night ended up being one of the longest hardest of everyone's lives. Never had more tears been shed.

For the rest of his life her son's birthday would now also be the worse day of his life and there was nothing anyone could do to change it. It was the day he had forever lost his mother.

The son and his mother had always had a special bond, his son, her only grandson was born on her birthday and now she'd passed away on her son's birthday.

Continue to Chapter 14 - Saying Goodbye