Only before Her Passing Did Mother Hear Words of Gratitude from Her Son — Story of the Day
An only son is angered when he has to look after his dying mother and ships her off to a palliative care facility.
No one who had seen George Lander grow up would ever have imagined his reaction when his mother entered the final stages of a deadly battle with cancer.
Doreen Lander had been the most loving and supportive mother imaginable to her only son, but when she became bedridden in the last months of her life, her devotion was not repaid in kind.
George couldn’t wait to get rid of his dying mother and all that responsibility. | Source: Shutterstock.com
Doreen had first been diagnosed with colon cancer a few months before her 68th birthday, and she had faced this new enemy the same way she’d faced the many challenges in her life: with quiet determination.
Doreen had broken the news gently to George, afraid that her illness would upset him, but she never expected his reaction. “I suppose you’ll need me to drive you to treatments at odd hours of the day?” he’d asked with a distinct note of irritation in his voice.
“No, son,” Doreen said with her usual tranquility even though her heart ached from the unexpected blow. “The hospital’s oncology department has a pick-up/ drop-off service for patients.”
“Oh good!” cried George callously, “I was afraid your problem was going to interfere with my work schedule. We’re now in the middle of an extremely sensitive take-over…”
When Doreen was diagnosed with cancer, her son didn’t seem to take it seriously. | Source: Pexels
Over the next six months, Doreen battled her cancer virtually alone. Of course, her friends rallied around her, but they couldn’t understand George’s absence and their unspoken censure of her boy upset Doreen.
Doreen was sure that this apparent indifference was George’s way of distancing himself from his fear of losing his beloved mother, of being left alone in the world. She understood that fear very well.
As a young woman, Doreen had lost both her parents to cancer within months of each other, and her young husband had passed away after a serious work accident had left him in a three-month coma.
Yes, Doreen knew well the agony of sitting by the bedside of a beloved, watching them fade away, feeling helpless, impotent, hopeless. She convinced herself that George was trying to avoid that same agony.