Long Absence and an Uncertain Future
2018 started so well. And then it went to hell pretty quickly. I was in the final throes of dissertation writing. It was a stressful time trying to get everything finished and knowing it had to get finished no later than early April. Finally, a defense date was decided - April 20 - and my flights were booked. I had been planning a trip with Mom, but we couldn't decide where we wanted to go. We just wanted to get away and enjoy each other's company. We invited Andrea to join us and we were looking forward to it. Then in early March, I gave Mom a call on a Sunday morning. She sounded breathless. She kept poo-pooing it. I told her to call my brother and get to the hospital, but she kept saying she was going to try and see a doctor in the coming week. Annoyed that she wasn't listening to me, I did the only thing I could think of: I yelled at her. I told her to get to the hospital. She was so startled by my reaction that she did exactly that. And that's when the downhill...