5 Things I Learned from Watching My Dad Die
“Grief is not a disorder, a disease or a sign of weakness. It is an emotional, physical and spiritual necessity, the price you pay for love. The only cure for grief is to grieve.” -Earl Grollman
In 2018, my world turned upside down when my father collapsed in his living room. Within hours, he was placed in an induced coma, and my days and nights were consumed by an agonizing wait for his awakening that never came. For fifteen long days, doctors tirelessly monitored him, searching for answers as his condition fluctuated, and his lungs filled with fluid. It was a bewildering experience for me, struggling to comprehend how a body that once functioned could suddenly, without warning could shut down.
Living far away, I traveled to be by his side the moment his partner called, informing me that the nurses had urged the family to gather. In the hospitable silence, I sat there, holding his hand, feeling an overwhelming mix of emotions—helplessness, fear, and an urgent desire to connect with him on a deeper level.
Witnessing him in pain, relying on a ventilator for survival, was a haunting sight. The inability to engage in meaningful conversations with him broke my heart. However, in the midst of the despair, a flicker of hope emerged. As I played his favorite song and reminisced about cherished memories, I caught sight of a single tear gently gliding down his cheek, a silent acknowledgment that he was aware of my presence.
His final days were the most arduous of my life, marking my first encounter with the death of a loved one from such close quarters. In the face of relentless sepsis, the doctors struggled to trace the source of infection. Tragically, his body succumbed to the relentless assault, cascading into cardiac arrest, and he slipped away while i stepped out of the room for a moment, still encased in an induced coma.
Here are some of the lessons I learned, which arose from a very specific situation but which I feel are equally applicable to other challenging situations in life:
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