Jeremiah Hill Jeremiah's Last Laughs

When we first enrolled Jeremiah in Angela Hospice in January 2022, I thought this day would not come for another 18 months, the day when he would leave his group home and come home.  But the timeline goals have kept getting shorter. For weeks, he's been begging me to come home. Knowing how much he loves people and school, I would always ask him if he could make it another week or two, and he's always said 'yes' until last Saturday.

Usually standing when we've had these conversations, he sat down next to me on the couch, winded and serious, and pleaded with me not to have to go back to school.  This time, I asked him if he could make it 2 more days, until the hospice doctor was scheduled to visit, and he said 'yes.'
The hospice doctor said he has weeks or months left. When we first entered this twilight zone, it was a year. Or two.  Or five. The intake nurse had said some folks last in hospice for 8 years!  Deep down, I knew this was not the case with Jeremiah's congestive heart failure.  It has been almost a year since he was diagnosed with CHF in June, 2021, after two bouts of COVID-19 and the underlying condition of having a congenital heart defect. We spent weeks in the hospital between May 2021 and December 2021, with minimal treatment.  When the last pacemaker surgery in November 2021 was an abysmal failure, we knew we were done.

Now, I read him bedtime stories of heaven and hope Grandma Gladys will greet him at the gates.