{"id":167,"date":"2005-09-17T23:30:33","date_gmt":"2005-09-18T03:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/snarl\/2005\/09\/17\/acceptancewith-a-bit-of-humor\/"},"modified":"2005-09-17T23:30:33","modified_gmt":"2005-09-18T03:30:33","slug":"acceptancewith-a-bit-of-humor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/2005\/09\/17\/acceptancewith-a-bit-of-humor\/","title":{"rendered":"Acceptance…With A Bit of Humor"},"content":{"rendered":"

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On Friday, September 16th, at 10:10 AM, Heather passed away. She was in the company of her parents and their pastor. The tubes and equipment were all removed at 10:05 so my brother and his wife had 5 minutes to hold her for the first time in years without the obstruction of wires and tubes. Within those few minutes they managed to get some touching photographs of Heidi holding Heather (which I hope to post here next week). Heather actually looks like a perfectly healthy sleeping baby girl in each one. Unfortunately, as the series of photos progresses, you can tell when Heather starts to die as Heidi’s face changes gradually from sadness to utter devastation. It’s just like looking at movie stills – each image getting more and more horrific (I won’t post those here).<\/P>
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I arrived at the hospital shortly afterward to drive them back home. My parents left the Cape and brought my niece and nephew back to my brother’s house. Shortly after their arrival, Heidi and Paul asked the kids into the living room to tell them the news. Before the talk could begin, 6 year old Katie asked where Heather was. When Heidi said “Nick, come over here so Mommy and Daddy can talk to you”, my 7 year old nephew responded by saying “No thank you. I need to go into the bedroom to do some work.” (Nick has an entertaining way of saying things).<\/P>
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He definitely sensed something was up and wasn’t ready to discuss it. As everybody started bursting into tears, I heading into the other room to compose myself and to see how Nick was doing. Without hearing the news, he already knew what was going on and was already crying. <\/P>
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After a while, he came out to hug his mom and dad. As we all were wiping away tears, Nick stopped crying, looked at his mother and asked “Does this mean I get my bedroom back?”<\/P>
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That was a typical thing for Nick to say…and it was exactly what the rest of us needed to hear. We all burst out laughing and it lightened up the mood.<\/P>
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The funeral will be on Wednesday and for those readers who know her (and my family), I wanted you to know that a fund is being set up through the Mitochondrial Disease Action Committee (to assist other children and families suffering from this disease). If interested, checks can be sent to:<\/P>
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