Dawn began to peek over the treetops, just under the grayish clouds and dark of night.
The power had been out for almost 12 hours now, the result of 60 mph winds, rain pounding the ground at a sideways slant, and treetops toppling into power lines.
My daddy’s breathing was ragged and weak, his body totally used up and finished, waiting for the next journey to begin. The stillness of the power-less trailer surrounded by the dawn after a ravaging storm was my calm.
The flashlights were beginning to lose their brightness and were fading into the color of pale moonlight, and I probably should have gotten up and turned them off, surely saving their precious few battery hours for the next time because I just as surely wouldn’t remember to put new batteries in later.
I stepped outside to breathe fresh clean air, hoping for a cleanse of mind, and body, but instead found the haze and fog of a morning awakening that would surely be my Daddy’s last.
It seemed fitting to be surrounded by the murky air at this moment, the fog swirling in my brain a match for the clouds lurking just above ground in the field below.
If you got to choose the day you died, and you weren’t really ready to go, I’m thinking you’d want one that was dark and dreary, heavy and ominous and filled with the unknown.
In the early hours of this morning, with just me by his side, my daddy took his final breaths.
He is no longer in pain, no longer angry at the failure of his body and I’m sure getting a talk down from Mama for taking so long to join her.
Thank you so much for you love, support, and prayers at this time.
with Glitter & Grace
Sasha
Comments