"You should take her home," the doctor said in a hushed tone. Sympathetic, but still knowing the outcome.
"Why would we do that? You're helping her right," the woman asked. Confused on the surface but deep down she knew.
Her sister was going home for the last time. She wouldn't be making any trips back and forth to the hospital much longer. The end was near. Cancer had riddled her body. Taken organs and left her a shell of the woman she once was. The doctor was doing his best to be compassionate. It didn't matter. Whatever he told the family would sound cold and heartless. He had just sentenced their loved one to death. Not by any choice of his own, but because there were no longer any options.
"Hey, Abby, just stop," she wheezed from her bed. "I can't do this anymore. I'm ice skating up hill with this," she cracked a joke.
That had been their favorite inside joke from when they were kids. Motherfuckers always trying to ice skate up hill. That's what Wesley Snipes said. It made them giggle for hours when they were younger. The phrase stayed with them, even now as adults. Abby didn't want to believe it, but if this was what her sister had decided then so be it.
A calm death at home, maybe after watching on of her favorite movies. That was all she wanted now. She had been robbed of so much time from illness and the constant surgeries and treatments. She just wanted the final days to be hers. If there were days. There may only be hours. But, they would be her hours. That's all she could ask for now. It had been an okay life, a good life. She would have liked more time with her kids. She wanted to go to a few more concerts and she never got to drive a Corvette. Still, she had lots of time of with a family that loved her. She got to see all of her favorites live in concert. She was even in a movie once, she was just a background character, but she was there.
Cancer might take her life away. She may miss some milestones, a few weddings and retirements. But she was there. Cancer can never take away the memory of her, the photos, the videos. She was there, that's what matters.
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