And her mother hugged her and she began to cry. Her mother, as she had done ten thousand times in their 41 years together hugged her daughter harder and whispered words of love and comfort. That’s what mothers do. Its their job. Its what they do best. Except this time, the words of comfort were empty and devoid of meaning.
How do you comfort a child who is dying?
What can you say to ease their pain? Words are not only inadequate, they’re superfluous. Words at a time like this are an insult to the soul of the soon to be departed. So she hugs her daughter tightly, silently railing against the inability of her words to have the desired effect of easing the passage of her child who, balanced now on the edge of life and death, will soon drift away into the great and glorious unknowable.
She doesn’t want to let go. Perhaps a rush of memory causes her eyes to mist over as she recalls her daughter’s first steps, her first communion (her last communion being inexplicably denied her by a lawyer who sees a human being starving to death as “peaceful” and “comfortable”), her first date. Perhaps she sees the beautiful young woman smiling as she walked down the aisle at her wedding or the more mature, pensive adult who, until her heart stopped mysteriously that horrible day, was a friend, a confidante, a blessing.
She looks into her daughter’s eyes and sees…what? Does she see recognition, a spark of human awareness, a flicker of life? She says she does. She’s got 41 years of experience looking into those eyes. She knows what she sees. Why won’t anyone listen to her?
The doctors, the medical gods with all of their instruments, and charts, and diagnoses, have looked at her daughter and walked away shaking their heads. She’s gone, they tell her, let her go.
The doctors mean well. They’ve been, for the most part, kind and considerate of her feelings. She knows that their years of training and experience have given them the expertise to treat her daughter’s body.
But they don’t know her daughter. Were they there when she fell off her bike and needed the special care that only a mother could give; care that no doctor, no medicine, no balm could possibly duplicate? Were they there when she lost her first love and needed to be in that special hollow between a mother’s breast and shoulder where all troubles, all pain seems to vanish as if a fairy waved a magic wand and made the world right again?
She sees her daughter’s sunken eyes. She hears the labored breathing and knows it won’t be long now. The day, the hour, the moment is approaching when whatever germ of humanity was left in her daughter will soon be gone and all she’ll have left is memory. She tries to push this out of her mind but still, it intrudes on her thoughts and jars her senses as she realizes a great part of her life-being a mother to a daughter-will soon be at an end.
Does she hug her daughter tighter at the thought? Is she bereft of hope that her own life will have meaning and purpose? Surely she has a loving husband and son who will do their best to comfort and console her through her grief. But do even they understand the hole in her soul her daughter’s death will leave?
She doesn’t care about courts and judges and such anymore. She doesn’t listen as politicians pontificate and others who care less about her daughter than they do their own personal and political agendas scream at each other and accuse each other and rant against each other in an inexplicable spectacle of emotion tinged with fear and hatred. She doesn’t hear it. She doesn’t care. She doesn’t want to think about that now.
All she wants to do is hold her crying daughter and tell her there, there, it will be alright. Soon you’ll be with Him. Soon the glorious light of eternal mind will wrap you in its arms and you will know the indescribable and wondrous feeling of eternal peace. And you will be comforted.
And her mother hugged her and she stopped crying.
Cross-Posted at Blogger News Network
7:44 am
A Rose For Terri
Roses of protest on Easter:
On Easter Sunday, starting at 3 PM, supporters of Terri Schiavo will leave roses in front of Michael Schiavo’s home. Starting at 3 PM, individuals will each leave a rose for in honor of Terri.
“We are leaving t…
9:14 am
Incredible post, SH.
11:34 am
SH…......that hurt….I didn’t want to cry again.
11:46 am
Just when I thought my heart and stomach couldn’t lurch any further….
1:13 pm
It was a good post. I really feel for Terri and her family. It’s too bad that soo many people never considered the fact that Terri is not and will not be happy living like that. It’s also terrible that Florida law prohibits a lethal injection which would have spared her even more suffering.
1:18 pm
Superhawk, your Pieta for this Mary, carved and polished with loving words, cries out in loud wet tears the Passion of Theresa. Thank you very much.
5:29 pm
Yes Joe, an injection would have been kinder, but remember, starving to death gives one a feeling of euphoria….in fact, that feeling of euphoria is so strong that Terri was placed on a morphine drip this morning, not for the pain, because she has none due to the fact that she is a vegetable, but to keep her from dancing into the hallway in euphoric jubilation of having her organs shut down and her eyes bleed.
8:20 pm
I can’t imagine what it must be like for a mother to lose her daughter, especially when it didn’t have to happen.
6:19 am
SH : Very touching, thank you.
Joe S : “It’s too bad that soo(sic) many people never considered the fact that Terri is not and will not be happy living like that” ... and perhaps you have not considered that you have no idea what she wanted? The only reason anyone thinks they know is because her estranged husband, who has lots of ulterior incentives, remembered years after the incident that she said she didn’t want to be ‘maintained’. Normally a witness is questioned – strangely, as her legal guardian, I doubt he questioned himself all that hard …
/TJ
... NIF
... The Wide Awakes
8:05 am
Captain Emeritus of Lolly-Gaggers
Today’s dose of NIF - News, Interesting & Funny … pray for Terri!
8:30 pm
AS SHE LAY DYING: Terri Schiavo supporters MUST read this!
Wow! Very moving, this is a MUST READ! Follow the link to catch the whole great thing.
Right Wing Nut House: AS SHE LAY DYING
And her mother hugged her and she began to cry. Her mother, as she had done ten thousand times in their 41 years together hu…
2:27 pm
My God . what has this world come to ? I can’t believe that another human being can decide the death of an innocent person, and in such a cruel way . Even those on death row are given an injection , why?, because they have rights! WHAT ABOUT TERRI’S RIGHTS? She didn’t do anything to deserve to die like this . Who is her husband to be playing God? If God wanted Terri he would have taken her 15 years ago .
4:43 pm
I’m Back from the Dead and I’m Pissed
Due to being ass-raped by Web Hosts Plus for several days, I had to call off the most recent Watcher’s Council vote. Apologies to everyone, especially to those members who attempted to send in nominations… here is a mini-roundup of…
2:20 am
I’m Back from the Dead and I’m Pissed
Due to being ass-raped by Web Host Plus for several days, I had to call off the most recent Watcher’s Council vote. Apologies to everyone, especially to those members who attempted to send in nominations… here is a mini-roundup of…
3:57 pm
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