Luke and Sarah arrived. I asked everyone to leave the room except for the four of us. Luke had spent pretty much the entirety of Lynette’s illness trying to know as little as possible about what was going on with her. That is one way of coping. Sarah knew MUCH more about what was happening and actively sought out information, but she didn’t know about the events of THAT day.

I told them that we were stopping all treatment efforts for Lynette and that we would be taking her home on hospice care. Luke said “Do you mean Mama is dying?!” This was totally new information to him. He began shrieking and yelling out his distress. All of us were sad, but things became QUITE intense for about 30 minutes. Eventually, Luke and the rest of us quieted down. Connie Mitchell Shelton and Joey Shelton had joined the group of visitors by that time. Connie and Joey offered Luke and me the use of their unoccupied house in Belhaven. That would keep us closer to Lynette for that night. It was a most welcome instance of hospitality.

There certainly CAN be worse days in a person’s life, but the day I discerned that we could no longer delay Lynette’s death and I had to tell my children that was the worst I’ve ever had.