Goodbye Mother....

I dread hearing my phone ring in the middle of the night, because it’s usually never good news, especially when a loved one has been sick for a while.

It was Tuesday July 23rd at 1:01 am when my cell phone rang. When I opened my eyes and realized it was my sister calling, I picked up and answered “hello”. She asked if anyone had called, and at that moment I knew the reason she called was to inform me that the person I called mommy for the past 53 years was gone. I was silent, and then my sister uttered the words, “ Debbie, it happened. Mommy is gone.” All I remember is saying “ok”, and I hung up. I thought I was dreaming. There was no way this was happening! My mother was gone? I got up to go to the bathroom, and my husband who was already up when the phone rang, put his arms around me as I started to cry. My mother can’t be dead. I was in total shock and disbelief.

To back track a bit, in 2018 my younger sister mentioned our mother was losing weight rapidly, but she was unaware of the cause. Everytime I spoke with my mother, she said everything was well, so we never spoke about what was causing her drastic weight loss. December of that same year, our grandmother passed away and my siblings, our mother along with some nieces and nephews made the journey to Grenada for the funeral.

The evening my flight arrived, a few of my siblings and I went to visit our mother. I was not prepared to witness how much weight she lost. I was scared. Upon our arrival, I was in total shock to see my mother’s condition because the year before, when I last saw her, she appeared strong and healthy. I didn’t want to believe that was my mother lying on the bed. What happened? Two days before we buried our grandmother, I sat on the edge of the bed and spoke with my mom. I asked her what was on her mind, and what she was thinking about. We spoke about seeing the doctor upon her return to the U.S., to which I agreed.

Three days after our grandmother’s funeral, we all returned to our respective homes and the following week was Christmas. I had dinner with my husband’s relatives, and while everyone was celebrating, I was thinking about my grandmother, and how she was not around to spend Christmas with my sisters and their families. It would take a while for us to adjust to her absence. The day after Christmas changed our lives forever. It was the day our mother went to the doctor, and after a series of tests and scans, the results came back - our mother had a tumor on her liver.

To be continued…..