It is difficult to see one’s mom—the person who once explained the world to you—so confused, weak and befuddled. Some of what she talked about made sense and some didn’t. I was just grateful that she knew who we were and that it made her so happy to have us there.

She spoke of my dad and that he would be so thrilled when we can all be together. “You know your daddy…he is getting everything all ready for us up there.” At first, I wasn’t sure if she realized that my dad passed in 1991, but I think that she did—”up there” referred to being reunited one day in heaven, and God was the one “getting things ready.”