REFLECTIONS
Finally Home
My dad passed away early in the morning on 14 May 2001. Dad had contracted a staff infection throughout his body, resulting from being given dialysis with dirty and infected tools at the Altoona Hospital. On Saturday, the 12th, Dr. Maniglia told mother and I that we would have to remove him from the hospital, because someone, like dad, who was dying, was not permitted to remain there. We were told to either take him home or have him placed in a "home".
We tried to make him comfortable at their home and mother and I were hopeful that maybe he'd pull out of the illness. Mother's Day was the following day ~ Sunday May 13th. Mother and I had prepared a 'picnic' on Sunday afternoon and set up a little table beside dad's bed. We had our picnic and later in the day dad became non-responsive. He was taken to the Nason Hospital in Roaring Spring and lingered until about six o'clock the following morning. Carol kept up a vigil, talking to dad and trying to keep mother calm. I was in such pain from the sciatica that I was experiencing at the time, that I went home around four o'clock to get a little rest in my own bed. Mother called me and Leon as soon as dad passed on.
I think that if he had survived longer, my dad would have added more tales to this collection, but that was not in God's plan. So I will close this collection out with respectful love for my father, Bernard Robert Smith.
