Today, January 26, 2010, Liz would have been 52 years old. Today marks the beginning of her final hours.
Five years ago today, we celebrated her 47th birthday at the hospital – 24 hours later she went into a coma induced by the level of pain medication she had to have. The next day, Friday, she was moved to hospice.
Around 2:30 Saturday morning, she went home.
This loss became for me the defining grief experience of my life: the nearly eight years of periodic illness and treatments, and then the final two horrendous years – the pain, the surgeries, and the struggle to survive the inevitable.
I would like to remember this with you as my way of beginning my sharing about grieving and regaining our lost selves. This is my experience, strength, and hope – not my knowledge, intellect, and understanding. It is personal – and it is emotional – and it is healing. To avoid the inevitable pain is to lose so many beautiful parts of our selves. To live and love is to become the best versions of our selves – and it’s definitely worth the price of grief.
Will Wass
This loss became for me the defining grief experience of my life: the nearly eight years of periodic illness and treatments, and then the final two horrendous years – the pain, the surgeries, and the struggle to survive the inevitable.
I would like to remember this with you as my way of beginning my sharing about grieving and regaining our lost selves. This is my experience, strength, and hope – not my knowledge, intellect, and understanding. It is personal – and it is emotional – and it is healing. To avoid the inevitable pain is to lose so many beautiful parts of our selves. To live and love is to become the best versions of our selves – and it’s definitely worth the price of grief.
Will Wass
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