The hospice nurse had mentioned to us that in her experience, some people prefer to die alone. She had observed families that had a 24 hour vigil with someone always in the room with the one who was dying. Eventually, the person on vigil duty would have a need to leave for just a few minutes. When they would return, their loved one had passed away.

Calli felt as though mom would be one that would like to die alone. We agreed, and decided to leave her room for ten minutes.

I peeked in about 6 minutes later, the nurses were in the room verifying that she had passed away.

It was 11:31 am on Sunday August 24th, 2014.

I waited for the nurses to leave and went over to the bed. A room that ten minutes before had been warm and full of life was now cold and sterile.

Lorna had passed on and was now surrounded by generations of love. A welcome home celebration had begun.