My 96-year old mother died last week after a 12-month bout with dementia, and a much briefer tussle with pneumonia.
While I had been fortunate to spend good time with her in Portland earlier this year while she mostly remembered who I was, I missed her passing by an hour Thursday. The flight that I had scrambled to move up a day from Friday due to a steep decline in her health the previous afternoon was landing at the PDX airport when she passed away peacefully in the presence of my sister and my younger niece.… Read the rest