I've been to see Karen twice now, and it's not good. Yesterday she raised her eyebrows a bit when I spoke to her, but today she is once again under heavy sedation and unresponsive. Adding to her problems, she's now developed pneumonia. Oh my dear friend....
When I left yesterday I was beside myself not knowing what I could do. Some of you may have visited a loved one in critical care, but this is the first time I've had to. She has a breathing tube and respirator which allegedly they were removing yesterda,y but it apparently was not meant to be. One thing that really bugs me is that they shaved only 2/3 of her head, rather than the whole thing. It just looks silly. She would be mortified to know that her gray roots are showing big time! Also I'm terribly upset about the amount of tape used to keep all these tubes in place; I can only imagine how much removing all that will hurt!
Anyway, Karen and I have been reading buddies for 25 years; what occurred to me that I could read to her. I don't own A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, her favorite book, but I do own another one she loves. Years ago my friend Judy gave me a book,Looking for Mary, that I passed along to Karen. Both of these ladies are seriously Catholic. This being a seriously Catholic story, they both loved it. Returning home, I found it on the bookshelf, and set it on the counter to take with me today. After getting clearance from the nurse, I began reading. I have no idea whether or not she understood it, however, I plan to keep it up. One thing is that before I began reading I thumbed through the book, only to discover a bookmark left there by Karen--blessings for Catholics that recite the rosary, or something like that. The nurse was kind enough to tape it to the window beside her bed. Tomorrow I plan to take a print of a statue of the Virgin Mary that I took in St. Augustine; although many people looked at it, they never bought it. I'm thinking it was still here for just this purpose.
I'll leave you with this little image that hopefully is more cheerful than I have been.
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