Things Fall Apart And Come Together

  On September 23rd 2020 I woke up to a text message at 4.30 in the morning from a social worker whom I had previously given as an emergency contact. It said "The Farren Care Center just called me about Jo. The nurse said he is not doing well. They are trying to get in touch with you. Are you there?" I was. I called and spoke to a nurse I knew well. She told me that Joe's pulse was rapid, his blood pressure very low, and that he was unresponsive. Did I, she asked, want to revisit the Do Not Resuscitate I had signed on his behalf? The only way that they would know what was going on was to send him out to the emergency room in the local hospital. I asked her five minutes to think the question over, messaged my friend Sophie who had recently retired as a senior hospice nurse in Wales, and with whom I had discussed at length how to make these difficult decisions on somebody else's behalf. By the time Sophie got back to me five minutes later I had already decided that ther...