Grief and Hope
Working your way through Loss
The phone call from my sister was unexpected. It was Friday morning, the 4th of February this year, and I was at work, calling customers, following up on their enquiries. I work in Personal Banking for one of Australia’s major banks.
My sister lives in Melbourne (Australia), and my family and I live in Adelaide. For the last two years, since the passing away of my mother, she has been the main support of my father, who had deteriorated mentally and physically. Being alone and isolated in the family home during Melbourne’s lengthy Covid-19 lockdowns had accelerated his decline. He had been diagnosed with Dementia, and this was progressing rapidly.
Last year, the day before his 90th birthday, my sister had admitted him to a aged care facility. She and a lady from his church visited him regularly.
My sister told me that my father was now at “end-of-life”, a term that I was familiar with from when my mother passed away early in 2020. She, like my father, had deteriorated rapidly towards the end of her life. A call to my father’s doctor confirmed this. She informed me that he was now unconscious, and that, in her experience, her patients at this stage did not endure for more than 3 days.
