#SOL16: Approaching

Rob and His Son (2016)

I.

There are stages to death. And I suspect there are differences between what I read about these stages that are mostly based on the elderly passing from the earth and what happens when a younger person dies. Nonetheless, I can see the signs when I look at  Rob who is leaving this earth much too soon as he passes into the active stage of dying.

My body seems to recognize this finality and before when I turned to doctors and nurses to guide me to understand what was happening to Rob, oddly now I don't seem to need a guide.
My husband tells me he is leaving with each prolonged breath.
Each rough breath.

Now he sleeps most of the day and is harder to rouse. Even in the evenings when he is usually restless, he is sleeping more. He now has trouble swallowing and I use the bottom of a hypodermic needle to give him sips of water and use my finger to wet his lips. After just a few sips he refuses more. And before this day ends, he will refuse water.

II.

The times when he is more fully awake, he stares beyond me at something only he is seeing. His face is euphoric, beautiful, other-worldly.