The MAD Life will never be over. What has been, can never be erased. What is now known cannot be unknown.

My mom passed on from her Alzheimer’s on March 14, 2025. It was a long time in coming. She’d been under hospice care in addition to Memory Care in November when she stopped eating for the first time. It took several times of not eating to finally go strictly to palliative care and no longer encourage her to do what she didn’t want or need to do anymore.

Her life was more than just these last few chaotic years that she never wanted. She believed in euthanasia as a gift we give loved ones, and she wanted that, but it’s not permitted in Michigan. Fortunately, her life was family, friends, and faith … far more than her diagnosis or the peace she wanted earlier than she received it.

She now has the ultimate joy with all of her treasurers in heaven who went before her. She is en-robed by love.

I’ve been told many people feel like orphans after their parents pass on. I don’t feel that way. I am blessed with the best of friends, many mothers by friendship, some father figures in faith, and my family.

Perhaps it’s because I have always spoken to my father, sister Cheri, grandma Julia, niece Erin, aunt Gladys, Isabel, and so many phenomenal souls who have passed from this earth into the great beyond. I believe they hear and guide me. I feel their voices and presence in my soul. I hear their laughter and words of wisdom.

Moral of the Story: No one is ever alone. No one does anything alone. Mom is in a joyous place with her treasures in heaven. We are surrounded by a greater cloud of witnesses whether we want them or not. May you feel love and encouragement from those who have gone before us and those here with us on earth.