On Living Authentically

28th January 2015 (originally posted on Facebook)

This afternoon I’m sitting in the cafe at the Caritas Christi Hospice.

Thirteen weeks ago today at 5:15pm on Wednesday 29th Oct, Rosie unexpectedly took her last breath here. I am so incredibly thankful that I was able to be at her bedside for that moment, having just come back from having coffee and time out with two supportive mates.

I came here today to return a mattress cover loaned to Rosie by PalCare who just happen to be collocated with Caritas and realised that I wanted to stay and spend one last time here to reflect on the events of that day.I knew that it was important to come back one day and sit here knowing that this is a sacred place of peace and release for both Rosie and I.

In a little while I’ll move from the cafe and go and sit in the chairs in the little foyer outside the room Rosie was in. This was the place where the family gathered in grief with me after she had gone, each of us going to and from her room to say the final words that we wanted to say.

And then, just as we did on that night, the appropriate moment will come today when it’s right to leave Rosie here and return home to begin a new phase of life.

Not that Rosie is really here; I knew in my heart the moment she died that she had left this place. Nonetheless it was in this sacred space that she spent her last moments on earth and it was at that moment a new journey began for her and all of us who loved her.

Goodbye my dearest Rosie.