The last days of my father: November,1996
I shall cut right to the chase: he was a 2 1/2 pack a day smoker since 1941when he enlisted the day following Pearl Harbor. He had a horrendously unhealthy diet after he separated from my mom in 1959. He worked two full-time jobs, earned three Masters Degrees in Literature and language, and slept maybe three hours a night. He had mild PTSD from his War years and was always run down-looking.
He developed congestive heart failure and then kidney failure as a result which progressed rather rapidly. His suborbital tissue was puffy and he retained a lot of fluid. One night when he lay down, he couldn’t breathe, and he called 911. He was taken to the hospital where they infused him with diuretics for a few days and sent him home. He did great…for about 7 weeks and the same thing happened again. He was discharged and a few weeks later there was another repeat. Same result .
Two weeks later, right before the Presidential election, I took him out to breakfast on Sunday morning and he looked and sounded terrific. He hadn’t been that well in years. He had an enormous amount of energy and physical and mental vitality. I was really amazed.
Early Monday morning, a little after 3AM I received a call that he was being taken to the hospital. He awakened on Wednesday, asked his nurse who won the election, she replied “The President”, he sighed and said “Thank God” and lapsed into a sleep from which he did not awaken.
He thus rallied before the end: one last push physiologically and then it all gave out. He was 82. It was a loss of a tremendous intellect and knowledge of the intricate fabric of history. He was, I must add, not a good father to a young child and a worse husband but that’s not the point here.
His decompensation was rapid and it was as though he was drawn into a death vortex by the combination of heart failure and subsequent kidney failure.
So the point of this post is: I’ve seen this before, “up close and personal”.
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