“I get it. Believe me. In her right mind, she’d never want to live like this.”
“We’ve said that for years now.” He glanced at his brother. “Did you remind them about the advance directive?”
“No, but they’re aware. They won’t do anything crazy to save her.”
Alex sent a text to Jenny to update her on what he knew so far, which wasn’t much.
George and I are praying for you and Marion, Jenny replied. Do you want me to reach out to Daisy?
Yes, please. Tell her to feel free to come here if she wants to.
I will.
Thanks for thinking of that.
“Jenny is going to text Daisy and tell her to come if she wants to.”
“Oh, good thinking.”
Do you want us to come? Jenny asked.
Let me hear what they have to say first, and I’ll let you know.
OK, we’ll get ready just in case.
“Hope is asking if they should come.”
“I told Jenny to hold off until we hear more.”
“Yeah, good call.”
They waited an hour before Mallory came out to talk to them. “David and Quinn are with her and have confirmed she suffered a severe stroke. Without more extensive testing, we can’t be a hundred percent certain, but we know you wouldn’t want to put her through that.”
“No,” Alex said, his voice barely more than a whisper. “So is she dying, then?”
“We believe she’ll pass in an hour or two unless we provide life support.”
Paul was shaking his head before she finished saying the words. “No to life support. She’s suffered enough.”
“I agree. If there’s anyone who should be here with you, now would be a good time to call them.”
“Thank you for everything,” Alex said. “You and Quinn and the staff at the home have been a godsend to us.”
“We love your mom and your family very much. We’ll miss her.”
Alex’s eyes flooded with tears. How could he be so fucking sad over something he’d hoped would happen for years now?
“I just want to add… No mother could ask for more from her sons than what Marion has gotten from you guys. If she knew the full story, she’d be very, very proud.”
“Thank you,” Paul said as he wiped away tears. “That means a lot to us. We wanted to make her—and our dad—proud.”
“You’ve done that a million times over. If you want to sit with her, you can come back with me.”
Alex looked at Paul, who nodded. “We’d like that. Let us just text our wives to tell them to come in with the kids.”
After they sent the texts, they followed Mallory to the exam room, where their mother was hooked to monitors as she seemed to sleep peacefully, her chest rising and falling like usual, but he noticed her breaths were spaced out more now. Each of them took hold of one of her hands.
“You can talk to her,” Quinn said. “She might still be able to hear you.”
