Death Comes in 3's

Ever heard that before? I have and I'm tired of it; mostly because it seems to pertain to me lately.

Last night I came home with our son, settled in by changing my clothes and parking my ass on the sectional. I had been there with hubby for about an hour with the son in the bedroom watching TV when someone started knocking on the door. It was the sister in law from up the hill. Hubby answered the door and was told to go outside. A few moments later they returned back inside the house and hubby offered Sis a beer. She declined. I looked at both of them and asked how she was doing. She said fine and hubby said firmly "Babe, P died".

I had all kinds of old familiar feelings flood over me like a sick, wet blanket. She then told us that mother in law had asked the nursing home to call her if they didn't see P for a few days (P's wife N, lives at the nursing home and he visited just about every day). Well they called. So, MIL and FIL went to P's house to check on him. He had died days earlier. Nobody knows exactly when. This is going to sound strange, but all I could think about was P sitting on the sofa and going to sleep in the dark and not waking up. Nobody there to say good bye to. Laying there for days in silence. No one to make sure he hadn't soiled himself. Nobody to tell him that it's going to be okay. No one to reassure him that he is still loved no matter how crazy he may be.

This whole "alone thing" bothers me. P was as nutty as a fruitcake but he still deserved some sense of respect. He had a mental illness that "got in the way" of other people's every day dealings. While I listened to other people bitch about the inapropriate things that P said and did, I had an opinion forming in the back of my brain. Shuning him and casting him away because of a mental illness is like discrediting someone because they have cancer. They don't ask for that. They don't wake up one morning and say "Hey! I think I'd like to be crazy and make everyone else's life miserable!" It doesn't work that way.

I don't think P DESERVED what happened to him and I am so sad that he had to leave this world knowing that.