Heaven Came to Me by Marlene Sommer

Author:Marlene Sommer
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781630475666
Publisher: Morgan James Publishing

In the following days, family flew in to share our vigil by Patty’s bedside. Sometimes, there were more than a dozen people gathered in the Intensive Care room. Deeply connected by our common sorrow, we shed many tears and made funeral plans. Patty was awake at times, listening to everyone.

My daughter Alyssa immediately flew in from Washington, D.C., and my niece Katie (Eichler) Smith drove up from Columbus. Knowing how little time might remain, they wanted to be with their Aunt Pat, whom they loved so much. They did not leave Patty’s side, quenching her dry mouth with syringes of water and applying lip balm to the sores on her lips and baby lotion to the sores on her arms. They even added a little grape juice to the syringes and made “shooters” for her.

Patty murmured, “It has a little kick to it!”

Pampering her with a pedicure and doing her hair and make-up were small gestures of affection offered by Alyssa and Katie for the aunt they adored.

“Get me looking like Heidi!” Patty jokingly requested. “Heidi?” We laughed when she told us she meant super-model Heidi Klum. As I mentioned earlier, Patty was tall, thin, and blonde, with gorgeous blue eyes and a peaches-and-cream complexion, but, she never thought she looked like Heidi Klum.

“It’s gonna take a hell of a lot more than this!” she whispered in her weak voice.

Her devoted nieces even conducted a little contest, each of them applying the make-up on only half of Patty’s face to see who did the best job. They showed her their professional talents in a mirror both vying for her stamp of approval. Those dear twenty-something girls had reverted to a childhood demeanor to please Patty.

Between immediate family and in-laws, a steady stream of family flowed into Patty’s room, wanting to spend their last moments together with her. My brother-in-law, Vern Eichler, a purple heart Vietnam veteran, who himself nearly died after taking six sniper bullets in an ambush and spent many months in the hospital, came to bid a goodbye to Patty. She said she would go on a fishing trip with him, somewhere warm and far, far away. Patty never fished a day in her life! We all exchanged humorous stories with her as we laughed around her bedside.

Other than watching the intense grief expressed by my mom, who was losing her youngest daughter, the most difficult time came when Patty’s nine-year-old son came to say goodbye to his mother. He reclined on the hospital bed beside his mother and told her he had to tell her a secret. As he whispered in her ear, Hollywood movie writers could not have scripted a more emotional moment. This moment reminded me of the movie “Love Story,” in which Ryan O’Neill lies down on the hospital bed beside the love of his life, Ali McGraw, to say his goodbye. Patty told her son that angels are like people and are always with us.

One night Patty said, “I don’t know where Heaven

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.