Saturday, June 13, 2009

My Mother: The Harbinger of Death



So, here's a tip: If my mother ever asks you to help out with a New Year's Eve party, just say no. And run away.

My mother used to run a group home for mentally ill older adults. Since many of the clients living in the home have no family or are unable to go visit them, the holidays are always hugely celebrated at the group home. New Year's Eve was no exception.

December 31, 2003: An employee (we'll call her C) works the night shift and helps my mother with the party. Three weeks later she doesn't show up for work. Since that's out of character for her, my mother contacts the police. They find her in her home, and that she has unexpectedly died of the flu.

December 31, 2004: Employee B is the one working with my mother during the party. Two days later this relatively young woman (only 53) drops dead from a massive heart attack while walking to her car.

December 31, 2005: Employee B2 gets the fateful New Year's Eve party shift with my mother. A couple of months later? You guessed it. Sudden death from a ruptured aneurysm (this one was particularly bad--it happened on my mother's birthday and she was there and performed CPR until the ambulance arrived).

Suffice it to say, my mother no longer worked on New Year's Eve (not to mention the fact that everyone refused to work that night if she was going to be there).

But wait, there's more.

Part of running the group home was also managing some apartments where clients who could live on their own stayed with minimal supervision. As of now, all of the clients who lived there and all of the employees who worked there while my mother managed them have either died or are currently dying from terminal illnesses (all of them under the age of 60).

Now my mother works as a nurse in a prison. As far as I know, no one has died. Yet.

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