OMG, it looks like today might be the day. And BITCHY is in rare form! Her bravado is being tested and is found wanting. Hunk is in the stage called "terminal restlessness," or perhaps in the nearly-comatose condition that immediately preceeds death.
She is finally seeing the details and has retreated to denial. That wouldn't be so bad (sad, yes, but not so bad), except that her larger response is to refuse to follow the sage advice of hospice caregivers and others with decades of experience really caring for people in the process of meeting death.
The hospital bed for dad is due to arrive in an hour or so. She insists it is not necessary! That he will be fine in his current bed, even though the mechanics of the other would allow us to make his end of life care more gentle and efficient, and ultimately easier on him. Less pushing and pulling from rougher methods made necessary by keeping him low and long and heavy.
The bed for her was planned so she could rest close beside him, holding hands and snuggling up to the end. Because her fantasy, no doubt, was that he would gaze adoringly into her eyes, murmur "I love you, my darling," and drift off silently and peacefully into the next realm, to await her arrival.
Following an interval of confrontation, trying to bring rational sense to her, and some tough love talk, I thought to get her favorite nurse involved. Thank goodness "Doozey" was available for a consult and her intervention inspired cooperation. She gently reminded Bitchy that "Hunk is a valued veteran of the armed services and he deserves the best bed in his last days! It will help his caregivers to provide him with their best care, and that is what we all want for him."
It worked. Other hospice helpers happened in when she needed to be distracted, so I could dismantle their marriage bed and bring most of it down cellar. The decades-old mattress was too big and heavy and fouled with dad's secretions (and other aged unmentionables) that I just tied a rope to it, dragging to the curb for trash day.
If Bitchy happens to recover after Hunk has passed, and she gets booted off hospice and wants her old king-sided bed back, I will just buy her a new mattress.
An unlikely scenario...
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