SERENDIPITY?
I can hear the police sirens outside in the street, I wonder what’s happening!
My best friend died today….. it was such a relief as she was in so much pain towards the end. The cancer wasn’t caught in time and the radio/chemotherapy could only keep her comfortable and postpone the inevitable. Pain relief in the early stages was good and mostly manageable, but towards the end, although the hospice tried their best, it took on a life of its own and nothing could touch it. Her face was haggard and grey and she said, in one of her, now rare, joking moments, that it was the best diet she’d ever been on!
Arrangements were made for her transfer to home so she could spend the rest of her allotted time in her own comfortable surroundings. I tried to support her other half as much as I could, and would take over for him to have some time to sort things out, or just to spend some time away from the pain her illness was also causing him.
I’d met Jenna when we started high school together. There was some sort of relationship between us, that we always used to confuse people with. She was my mother’s, sister’s, husband’s, brother’s daughter…. second cousin, twice removed, or something like that. When I look back and remember the laughs we had, like getting caught smoking in the school bogs by the Secretarial Studies teacher. God, how we mimicked that poor woman. Come to that we used to take the piss out of most of the teachers! Wednesday afternoon’s schedule was “Jampot, Pigmy tits and Preggy”!! Roughly translated, French, Geography and Music. So many of the laughs we had, I couldn’t even begin to try to write them down - they would just not transfer to paper!
We had talked at times during her illness, of what I could do to “help” her on her way if things got really bad. We tried to think of ways that would not condemn me to goodness knows how long in prison. We were even quite inventive with some of the scenarios, bringing the laughter bubbling back to the surface. I think our wildest idea was for her to write a note, saying that a green-eyed monster from Mars visited, and poked his long finger, with a killer injection on the tip (E.T. style) into her belly-button. Neither one of us was at all sure that this would be believed though, so we gave up on that one! She was thirsty but said she couldn’t stand the thought of another glass of water, and for me to see what I could find in her drinks cabinet to flavour it with. The only spirit I could find that would do anything to lift her spirits was some Crème de Menthe and at least this gave the water a lovely green tinge, which, come to think of it, fitted in with our Martian visitor idea!!
It was just after this that she had a terrible coughing fit which really tired her out. I gave her some of the water and Crème de Menthe cocktail to ease her dry throat, plumped her pillows up to make her comfortable, and before I’d finished tidying the counterpane, she was fast asleep. Her hubby arrived back home, saw that she was sleeping peacefully, thanked me for sitting with her while he was out, and off I went.
I made a cuppa, sat down, had a cry and turned the telly on. That’s when I heard the sirens! Next thing there’s a hammering on the door…. the Police had come to arrest me on suspicion of murdering my friend - she had died about an hour after I left her.
When the judge pronounced me “Guilty” I had to accept the verdict. How was I to know that Crème de Menthe was the one thing that should never be mixed with Sploxtine (the pain killer she had been prescribed). I will have to bear this guilt for the rest of my life, I should have checked…….. but there again - maybe not!!
