"The Road Goes Ever On"

[wallace_trust]

This pic has a very special history.  It was done when the doctors last year said that my dear mother might have less than a week to live.  I painted her as Sam and myself as Frodo, standing together at the edge of eternity.  

There were so many strange feelings going through me when I was working furiously on this pic while Mom lay nearby, barely alive.  I alternated between working on the painting to ease my own tremendous stress, and lying on the foot of her bed with her, holding her legs as she suffered. The cancer had closed her throat almost completely, and if the proton beam therapy didn't work, she was going to die by strangulation. I remember repeatedly thinking that the picture should have a white ship, but if it had a white ship, she would surely sail on.

When the proton beam worked, they rang bells for her.  :)

(Story posted with Mom's permission)

Comments

[baranduin]

*hugs*

Thank you so much and your dear mother for sharing your story and the beautiful picture you made.

What a dark night you both went through.

[wallace_trust]

Thank you, and you're welcome. *hugs back* :)

It was the darkest time we've been through together so far, but unfortunately not the only one. A close second was the car wreck years ago which broke many bones. The wreck and the airlift to the trauma center were terrifying, and the worst was when no one on the other end would give me any information on whether she was even dead or alive, although I was her own daughter. I ended up collapsing in the lobby.

Add in half a dozen other such incidents, and we've been through as much wear-and-tear as JRRT's characters any day! :P But also like them, we stick together and find ways to deal with it all! :)