Me with the wife of my former dentist at their home office, September 221, 2004. I haven't seen this picture in years. Just popped up on my computer this morning. She lost her daughter at a very young age. She and her husband also retired down here to Delaware about the same time I did twenty years ago. I haven't seen them in ages. I usually ran into either one of them at the local supermarket. Either theirs (which I haven't been too in years) or mine (which is quite a distance from where they live. I will have to make a visit to their supermarket. Maybe I can run into here again. Both very good friends of mine for years. I felt so bad for them when their daughter died. Their daughter had just gotten married and was beginning her life. Yet another reminder of how lucky I have been in life to have lived this long and to have spent so may wonderful years with Bill. I have been truly blessed.
Delaware is the 12th U.S. jurisdiction to authorize medical aid in dying(10 other states plus Washington, D.C.) and the first to do so since New Mexico in April 2021. The law takes effect on January 1, 2026 or once the final regulations are formed to support the law, whichever is sooner.
I read this in my local newspaper a few weeks ago.
For years the Delaware state legislature has been trying to pass this basic human right, only to have the Delaware governor refuse to sign it. Governor Carney (a Democrat) refused to sign this bill because it was against his personal beliefs. Unbelievable!
I always thought our elected representatives were there to represent us. Apparently with Governor Carney his personal beliefs are more important than the general well being of his constituents.
Well, I am here to tell you folks I was so greatly relieved when I read in the newspaper that this bill finally passed.
As I have mentioned many times before, I am not afraid of death. As a matter of fact I welcome it now after a long and fulfilling and interesting life.
I'll be eighty-four years old in November. I have led a very good life. Oh sure, a few bumps and scary parts but that's all part of our learning journey. That's why we're here folks, to learn. After this lesson our spirit returns to our true home. Some call it Heaven, others call where our spirit goes after death other things. Whatever you call it, I do not fear going to my true home and especially now that Bill, the love of my life has died and left me alone. I do so look forward to being reunited with him and all my friends, family members, former co-workers and pets in that Great Beyond, or whatever you call it.
There were only two things I feared at this time in my life. I feared dying before Bill. Oh how I feared leaving him alone in this world. He didn't deserve that. I don't pray but I guess one could say I prayed to whatever greater power there was to let Bill pass before me. My prayers were granted.
My other fear was, when I die that it would be a long, slow and painfully agonizing death full of indignities. Thank God Bill didn't have much pain during his slow descent from the time of his stroke in January of 2021 until his death in February of 2024. But he did have a great deal of discomfort.
He was blind, weak, confused and very unhappy that he could no longer do his projects. He hated being dependent on people for his daily existence. He had a great difficulty swallowing, and had swollen legs with open wounds. Not a pretty sight or way of existing during his final years. He often talked about taking his own life which I had to talk him out of. I had to convince him that him taking his own life would only create a great deal difficulty for me and more important that if he wanted to end his days here at his home, he couldn't do something like that. He loved Casa Tipton-Kelly and being with me so he suffered in his dependent existence on me and health care workers who regularly visited him during the final three years of his life. Again, perhaps the only saving grace during the last three year's of Bill's life was that he wasn't in excruciating pain. Discomfort? Yes, a great deal of it. Pain, no. Again, thank you Jesus!
Now to me. How will my final days end? Yesterday, while at my computer looking at some You Tube accounts my Apple phone alerted me several times. At first I didn't pay attention to the alerts but then I looked. This was last night during the demonstrations in Los Angeles against ICE. I thought something had escalated so I looked at my Apply Watch. I was surprised to see that my Apple Watch was alerting me to the fact that my heart rate had just registered a low of 34 BPM! Wow! Apparently I was almost a sitting dead man at my computer. I got up and moved around a bit and got my BPM up to fifty.
I did a little research and found that a slow heart rate could be a symptom of bradycardia. If I had bradycardia the relief could be an implementation of a pacemaker. I'm not there yet folks. But one thing I do know now, that if I did have a stroke, I have more options now.
Hopefully that was just a one off last night while I was sitting at my computer. I know my blood pressure has been consistently up since Trump was elected. Me and millions of others.
I didn't expected to spend my final years worrying about the destruction of America but there it is.
One day at a time folks. But one big worry is no more, I have options now.
