Melancholy is the theme

Months have passed again. But the blog waits for me; patient and open. Good 'ol blog.

So my step father is dying. Not in a few months kind of way. The doctor's stopped giving him hydration. It was probably the only thing keeping him alive. And my mom now has a steady stream of visitors who sit with her and him. Which I appreciate. I hate to think of her sitting alone in a house with a dying man.

A few months ago an acquaintance of mine posted photos on his Facebook page of the emergency room where doctor's tried to save his father. Rumpled hospital sheets with blood on them. Machines and tools gathered to try and administer comfort amid the chaos of death. His father had been sick for awhile I believe, but lingering illness apparently didn't lessen the impact of his end.

Some people found these photos very disturbing. Tasteless even. I found them extraordinarily brave. I believe he needed a way to process this highly personal event so he recorded it.

This acquaintance also has a brain injury and can be forgetful.

I don't know how forgetful really, but it does beg the question: what would you do if you thought you would you forget the death of someone you love? Would a photograph be enough? Would a social taboo hold you back from preserving that moment in any way you could?

In a quiet moment has my mother taken a photo?

And there have been a lot of quiet moments.