The Long Waiting
So she was finally alone at the last. And nobody in the world to know, to interfere, and I suppose it was like the world itself had not yet been invented. I got thinking standing over her body that had stopped breathing two hours before-this is the finality and the enduring which must be endured, because it is so-at last, is simply part of my lifetime.
I have loved, and even seen loss and grief, but never endured them all at once. I am speaking of inextricable suffering-all of it at once. I could have been happy for her, she looked content, I did say, “Its all right mom, let go.” She was someplace in that hospital room. I could even feel her looking at me, so perhaps she was waiting for me to arrive at the hospital, to hear me say those very words.