Fond Farewell
Saying goodbye to someone elderly is never easy when you know the end is nearing. I said goodbye to a client this week and although I left with a tear in my eye and a lump in my throat I didn’t feel so sad.
At 97 she was getting her wish to not go into hospital but gently slip away in the comfort of “my lovely bungalow” as she would say. She has a carer with her from the NHS hospital at home scheme 24 hours a day. She is comfortable and ready to go.
Until recent months she had been relatively independent and still cooked for herself and changed her double bed. Her weekly treat of a trip to the hairdresser and fish and chips were a welcome change from her chair and TV.
So it is with a little sadness but far more fond memories of her lovely stories and her cockney voice that I squeezed her hand and wished her “Safe Journeys” as she always did to me when I left.
