what happened?

[StrayDog]

5 hours ago, gwarrior said:

Been down that road 3 times. It's not fun.

It never is, and it never gets easier. 3 times for me, too

[Ghostsof1915]

8 hours ago, StrayDog said:

The day I had to put down my first dog. Over 30 years ago and it still stings

I think I was the only one in the family that cried when our dog Susie was put down. (First dog)

Considering 7 years earlier one of my first memories is when she gave birth to pups. And that new pup smell. 

I was so heartbroken we gave up all 5 to other families. I was hoping we'd keep at least one. 

But hey I was 3 years old. 

 

Took my brother 2 years before he'd get another Golden Retriever after his first (Harley, what a great dog).

Basically his wife sort of did a sneaky way about it. She heard through work they knew folks that they had a 2 month old Golden for sale. 

The seller said they could take the dog home, if they didn't feel they were ready for a dog she'd happily take her back. 

My sister in law brought the dog home, and my two nephews went nuts and started playing with the dog.

My brother came home from work. And seeing how happy his sons were, he said. "Yeah ok...." 

Edited August 20 by Ghostsof1915

[Coconuts]

I found out my oldest younger brother had been in a bike jumping accident, we were both teenagers at the time. He was probably like.. fifteen. He broke his back and was almost certainly going to be paralyzed, in my mind life was immediately flipped on it's head. We're not even a couple years apart and we'd grown up basically sharing most experiences together, we're still similar people even if our personalities have diverged over time. 

 

I wasn't there, didn't find out til later, wasn't able to see him before he was flown over to Vancouver. Got there when I could with a buddy, he was high out of his mind on morphine and trying to get up and walk, nurses kept trying to get him back into bed but he was so determined to walk; that was probably the hardest part, watching him yell in pain with each attempted step. 

 

Ultimately he beat the odds, which was like a 99% chance of never walking again, he's now a mariner who works out tugboats out of the lower mainland making a stupid amount of money. He's got a titanium rod holding his spine together and deals with back discomfort now and again to this day, but he can walk. Both of our lives would be very different today if he hadn't beaten the odds. 

 

Second one would be the day papa died, I was in my early 20's at the time. Only reason that's not number one is because we all knew it was coming. It came out that he had pancreatic cancer during a routine check up or exam in January, he died on the 26th of July, just deteriorated so fast. They'd given him a couple years but that was always optimistic. He had throat cancer too, it just wore him down. 

[Coconuts]

2 hours ago, Bob Long said:

Losing my dad to covid. The actual day was hard, but he managed to make a phone call 2 days before with the help of a nurse. Hearing him gasp out his last words to me was crushing. None of us could be there with him. I know people say sometimes, particularly in movies, that getting to say good bye is a good experience, but it's really not. 

 

Covid was brutal time to lose loved ones, my dad lost his mom to an aneurysm during Covid. Thing is, my dad is a landed immigrant from the US and his folks lived in Texas, so because of travel restrictions and the whole having to isolate bit he couldn't even fly down to attend the funeral. He'd have missed the funeral if he'd gone, he'd just be sitting and waiting to go back home basically, and then isolating again once home. 

 

There was absolutely nothing anyone could do.  

[Cerridwen]

Asking the doctors in ICU to lighten up my Dad's  meds so that his condition could be explained to him so he could make his own decision about further care. He had always been a very active, vibrant man... a fisherman, a hunter. He'd had an undetected abscess eat through his cervical spine and render him a quadriplegic who could not breathe on his own anymore in less than 48 hours. And then, saying goodbye to him after he'd made his decision to discontinue treatment.

There is a second one... in the past 15 months or so.... that I just can't talk about out loud yet...but it's been a very, very difficult year that turned life upside down AND inside out.

[smithers joe]

when they found cancer in my wife's brain and lungs, they gave her 6 months to live. the dear, excepted that and wanted to go. she lasted only 3 weeks.

 

a week before my brother died, he phone us. it was something he had never done before. i wasn't home but he talked to my wife. he said, he just wanted to see if we were alright. he told my wife, have joe call when he gets a chance. i was too lazy and self absorbed to return his call. he died a week later.

i've carried that guilt around ever since.

[smithers joe]

13 hours ago, Cerridwen said:

Asking the doctors in ICU to lighten up my Dad's  meds so that his condition could be explained to him so he could make his own decision about further care. He had always been a very active, vibrant man... a fisherman, a hunter. He'd had an undetected abscess eat through his cervical spine and render him a quadriplegic who could not breathe on his own anymore in less than 48 hours. And then, saying goodbye to him after he'd made his decision to discontinue treatment.

There is a second one... in the past 15 months or so.... that I just can't talk about out loud yet...but it's been a very, very difficult year that turned life upside down AND inside out.

can you translate the scottish line?

[Cerridwen]

31 minutes ago, smithers joe said:

can you translate the scottish line?

 

The translation from Scots Gaeilic to English is....

 

"The world may come to an end, but love and music will last for ever."

 

It 'spoke' to me!