All Shall Be Well

My family has experienced a loss.

The first for our family.

My mother has passed away.

One day, three weeks ago, I got the call I’d been dreading, yet knew would one day come. The call to come home to say goodbye.

My mother had a chronic illness, which she had for over a decade. While we knew the end would eventually come, none of us knew when. If I was going to make it home, time was of the essence. 

I never anticipated this. Not in my wildest dreams. I imagined I would get a call letting me know she’d already passed. I never thought it would happen this way.

I flew home, reunited with family members present, and spoke to my mom. Late that night my family and I went to our hotel nearby, and I finally got some sleep.

When I woke up the next morning, the gravity of the day fell upon me. I knew it would be the last day I would see my mother.

I sat on the bed in the hotel room, blinded by the morning sun. It was so beautiful, the sun pouring into the room. I decided to take a photo of the window of the hotel room, as a remembrance of the day. I didn’t yet know that my mother had already died, about an hour before I awoke.

My mother passed away peacefully in her sleep. She was married to my father for sixty-seven years.

Before I left for my trip, friends expressed their concern. I have never experienced loss in my immediate family before. I didn’t know what to do, what to say. What do you say to your mother on her deathbed?

I thought it to be a rhetorical question. Yet, the universe delivered an answer, from more than one source:

“Tell her you love her. Thank her for everything.”

Goodnight, mom. I love you. Thank you for everything.

“All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.”

-Mother Julian of Norwich

“Morning Sun” by Esperanza Habla