I'm writing this diary nearing the end of what has been a tiring week. To be fair to the parties involved I am not even directly involved in the events to cause the weariness, I am but a side causality providing support and strength to a spouse who is suffering right now.
This week I have been privy for the first time in my life, from the 'adult' side of things, the totality and finality that is the end of a human life.
I'll not mince words, nor espouse, nor rattle on. This is going to be pretty short and pretty sweet.
My grandmother in law is dying, as we speak. She has suffered stage four ovarian cancer for the last year. She battled valiantly and with quiet resolve. I know not directly of her personal life story. I honestly only know these events through the tales of my family in law. However to tell it here would take tomes on tomes of her struggles and trials. Mere digital bits of ones and zeroes would do nothing to tell her tales of a powerful and strong woman who weathered years and years of struggle, to finally come out on top and provide for her family.
She was, in the words of my wife, the Matriarch of the family. And now she lies in a hospital bed with the decisions, one she wanted, to pull all necessary means to safe her life.
That is not the story I want to diary about though.
I work in the public sector. Because I work in the public sector I am afforded some lateral concessions when it comes to taking time off. The reason I get those lateral chances is because I have built up a bevy of time off.
It is most likely I will not go into work tomorrow. I plan to go to sleep in the next few minutes, after catching up on KOS. I go to sleep assuming I will go to work but I know that if I wake in the morning, or am woken up in the midst of my sleep, I have no issue calling off work tomorrow. Or today...what time is it? This week with her being in the hospital and my wife having been here and there and me calling off already a few days so she can be with her grandmother have sort of messed with my sense of time.
So when my wife got the call that tonight, or morning, or whatever...this moment was the moment. That she needed to call family to gather and to prepare to mourn a powerful life soon to pass, it was without problem for us. It was without issue because I knew that if necessary I could call off the following day and not have to worry about my income stream. I had the power of certainty behind this decision because as a public sector worker, I had been afforded this.
So the next time someone rails on how public sector people mooch off the system, please share this story.
My wife, the wife of a public sector worker, was able to get at least another hour with her dying grandmother and not have to worry about the outcome of that choice.
What saddens me tonight, on top of the obvious, is that I know for certain that there is someone out there right now, facing the exact same situation and they are having to make a much harder choice because they are not afforded the same protections and benefits. Indeed there are other family members who having been contacted could not make it for those exact same economic reasons.
It feels incalculably criminal to me to be honest.
I got nothing else, floor is yours. If I don't respond it's because I'm drowning some sours right now.
2:10 PM PT: Stopped in real fast to check something and saw this on the spotlight and rec list. Thank you all for your warm thoughts. Things are well and moods are as you expect they would be, but we weather on as most people do. Thank you again for your well wishes and love.