Tempus Fugit Redux: Reflections on a Lost Parent
My mom as she was on this date in 2009. Little did we know that she only had six years left to live and that of those, her last five would be her worst. (Photo Credit: Alex Diaz-Granados) Tempus fugit. It's still a source of astonishment and bewilderment to me, even a decade later, how unpredictable and traumatizing life changes can be. Consider my mother's last 14 years on Earth. She entered the 21st Century (back in 2001) a bit slowed by the passage of time but still full of life and hope for the future, and died lost in a fog of dementia and impotence in the summer of 2015, leaving behind two adult children who distrust and dislike each other. Between January of 2001 and July 19, 2015, my poor mom went through the following health crises: A diagnosis of gastric antral vascular ectasia (GAVE), which is often referred to as watermelon stomach. Per the Mayo Clinic's website,"the term comes from the internal appearance of the stomach lining in those...