This, in the words of Sandra Tsing Loh, via an email that popped through last night just before midnight, and sent to Cathy's good friends, who for the past three days have formed one buzzing hive of email, Blackberry, and telephone transmissions about our friend, who, 48 hours after having the oxygen removed wherein she would be expected to survive "a few minutes," is still with us! Hence, Sandra's comment that, "Even in the ICU, Cathy has been ridiculously over-achieving. (So much so that, after giving her up for dead, [the doctors] actually THREW UP THEIR HANDS AND MOVED HER TO ANOTHER TOWER.] You would all be proud."
We are proud, and not at all shocked. As Jackie wrote today, Cathy's "giving her friends and family a chance to sit with her and hold her hand, and to say goodbye in their own way."
Ever gracious; ever stubborn. As her friends, we're grateful for the long good-bye.
I won't print all of Sandra's email, but a few points, as only she can make them:
I now realize that Cathy has hung on so long (her doctors admitted
they were, and I quote, "shocked" that Cathy is still alive) as she
wanted to FUCKIN' FUCKIN' FUCK! with the completely-wrong bloggers
announcing her early demise! Good work, Cathy! As always, you are
ASTOUNDINGLY wily. And I also wish to mention, with wounded 45
year-old vanity, that when I left tonight at 6 p.m. Cathy actually
looked BETTER than me (peaceful, relaxed, beautiful, with lovely
color).
All that said, Sandra believes, Cathy will pass today, and asks us all to be ready for the next leg of this journey, "the joyous Irish wake (?) type part of our mourning, i.e., the part where we mention that Cathy was fabulous and foxy... she was funny as hell, she was brilliant, she drove us crazy."
As of noon today: ready, if never ready.
Hi Nancy. I just checked your blog to see how you're experiencing Cathy's last days. I'm working the other end of the spectrum today - delivering babies. It's not shocking she's lived despite her doctor's predictions. Life is very distilled in the end. The current keeps going much longer than most would expect, especialy in a young death. My sister lived 10 days after everyone thought all was lost. Cathy's still got a little living to do. There's still something left. Doctors often make those kinds of predictions to protect their own hearts. It hurts bad to lose a patient. I wish I wasn't such a wise old sage at this or that it was only due to my life as a nurse but...
Posted by: Jeanne Faulkner | March 21, 2007 at 12:48 PM