Thursday, June 17, 2010

Now It Begins

I have to admit the title of this post is from a novel I recently finished. In the novel, The Secret Generations by John Gardner, a family of spy's is rocked by the death of the patriarch of the family. Following the death, they must follow the trail left by him to uncover one or more family members who, for years, have been traitors to the family and the cause.

It is almost surreal that, after finishing the book, a similar circumstance has fallen on my own little world. No we aren't looking for double agents or traitors, but the impending death of a family member brings out the vultures and other carreon to circle, waiting for that moment to pounce and begin picking at the carcass (in this case, estate) for anything they can get their greedy and undeserving hands on.

This will probably end up being a series of posts as there is a bit of history that must be told. But the history defines certain individuals, so as those individuals are introduced, so to will be the history.

Last Thursday, L's mom and her uncle were in an auto accident. It first appeared like it would be a very bad one. We were called and told that they were being airlifted to a hospital and nothing more. We went to the said hospital and waited as patiently as possible. They finally told us that, "no they were not coming in by helicopter, but by ambulance." When Mom arrived, the paramedics told us that the other ambulance, with Uncle, had been diverted along the way to a smaller hospital due to him having a possible heart episode.

I left L and her sister at the hospital with Mom and went to the other hospital to check on Uncle. When I got there, he was still in a neck brace, but according to the Dr, was OK other than some bumps, bruises, and a nasty friction burn on his neck from the seat belt. They wanted to keep him for observation to insure that the seat belt had not damaged his coratid artery.

Uncle is 87 yo and lost his wife over a year ago. He has been living with Mom, his sister, since last fall. Now while they get along like any brother and sister, couple that with his age and hers (81 yo) and you have a pretty good picture of the dynamics of the relationship.

Meanwhile, Mom has a severe laceration on her left arm that has peeled back the skin at the elbow. The Dr's are concerned about the cause of the accident and the fact that Mom may have blacked out, thus causing the accident. So they elect to keep her in the hospital overnight for observation. Uncle is throwing a fit because he doesn't want to stay in the hospital, but is finally convinced that it is for his own good.

Fast forward to Saturday morning. Mom has been given the all clear (meaning the Dr's cant find anything wrong with her) and she goes to the other hospital to visit her brother. Upon arrival, she is told that his condition is not good. They have determined that he has pneumonia and has had it for several months. He is also showing signs of diminished kidney function. At the same time, Uncle is becoming more and more lethargic and addled with the combination of his condition and the meds that they are giving him. He is weak, and virtually incapable of standing or moving himself, without someone practically holding him up.

Now it begins...... Part 2 tomorrow