Rare Like Us by Taylor Kane

Author:Taylor Kane
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 2019-07-30T14:08:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

My Dad Gets His Wings

That night, my mom and Sam followed the ambulance that carried my dad to the hospice facility to check him in and make sure he would get proper care. The next morning, we all went back to visit him. It was sad seeing my dad lying there in a barren room, decorated only by the family pictures my mom had placed next to his bed. He looked so ashen and frail, somehow even more so than he had in our dining room. Although his eyes were open, it was clear that he didn’t realize we were there. We stayed for a little while, talking to him and holding his hand, then went back home. We knew his siblings were planning to visit that day, and we were comforted by the fact that he wouldn’t be alone. My mom went back again by herself later that night.

Adjusting to being in our house without my dad wasn’t easy. It seemed so quiet. By force of habit, time and time again I would run into the dining room to see him, only to be startled by the sight of an empty hospital bed, a feeling quickly followed by the sinking realization that he was truly gone.

We visited my dad at the hospice facility the next two days. Then on that third night—December 20, 2003—my mom and I were sitting on the couch watching television together, when Cindy, who had a key to our house, suddenly appeared in our family room.

“I’m so sorry,” she said somberly. “Jack died a little over an hour ago.”

I don’t recall much of what happened next, but I remember screaming and crying and throwing up at the same time. My mom put her arms around me to stop me from shaking while Cindy cleaned up the mess.

“I wish I would have known . . . I wanted to be there at the end. I feel so bad that he was alone,” my mom said.

“You were there almost nonstop for weeks. You did everything you could for him. And he went very peacefully,” Cindy told her, giving us both a big hug.

After she left, my mom told me she was going to go down to the basement to break the news to Sam and that they would both talk to Matthew together. I went upstairs to my room and laid on my bed surrounded by my stuffed animals. I knew that things would never be the same again.

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