A Small Quantum Of Solace: Hospice and Old Dark Fired

The last week has been long. My wife and I have been deeply invested in helping care for a terminally ill neighbor and his wife who is a strong woman, but about at the end of her strength. During this time, we’ve actually been in their house more than our own. I’m retired and available to cut and run over at a moment’s notice and so I do. This poor gentleman, in addition to some form of pervasive stage 4 cancer, a broken back that never healed right, and myriad other problems, ultimately has been overtaken by dementia as well… so he wants to escape and run from his caregivers whom he now sees as tormentors and jailers. To be conscious is for him to try to flee… except he can get no farther than to immediately fall and geometrically increase his own suffering. I’m 6’4” and 250 pounds… he was a robust man who no longer breaks 90 pounds if that. All I need to do is stand there and it keeps him a little more safe. ANYWAY, on about the third day of in-extremis difficulty, I caught an hour break… a visiting nurse and hospice social worker were there to pace us all a spell. I was pretty numb and worn out as it was… but somehow reached for my pipe… and about a flake and a half left of aged MB HH Old Dark Fired gifted to me by our most excellent Cobguy a while back with a sample of Moztek Strang and a couple others. ONLY PIPE GUYS & GALS truly understand and appreciate what came next: a sense of solace and peace unlike anything else. Suffering and exhaustion and the truth of those things were not diminished, nor was the reality of it all… but there for an hour, I floated on wisps of smoke in the garage, gaining strength, reviewing perspective, seeing the long view, and just being detached and content for a few moments, before going back into the fray. To me, Old Dark Fired is one of the great jewels of our tobacconistic treasure chest… and with a little age on it, the deepness, complexity, and richness of the layers of the smoke are like few others. What a fine respite it was. And another thank you to cobguy and our pipester community here for celebrating the simple pleasures of these gifts every day. [Neighbor was admitted to an in-patient hospice unit on Monday. Nobody actually thought he’d even survive the trip but he’s still hanging on by a thread, but now is basically comatose. I don’t suspect it will be long but you never know. And so it goes.]

Thank you all above for your most kind thoughts and expressions. Like SO MANY OTHERS HERE on the Forum and elsewhere, all we’ve ever wanted to be is just "everyday folk" that can just simply “be there” for family, friends, and people in need. I was so deeply touched by the outpouring of sympathy here with and for Scrooge as he struggles with the loss of his son. And how our own tBrad was there for the displaced flooding victims down there and many other acts of kindness across a long and lovely life. And I have been touched by many many other such stories here that I can’t remember at present. (can’t hardly remember bugsquat any more!) But just to be clear, for the record, we are no saints by a long shot… just trying to do the “do unto others” thang in as many little ways as we can. Our neighbors have only been here five years and have absolutely no family locally or nearby. We just couldn’t see letting that poor wife go through all that alone is all! All I know is that all these vicissitudes of life things would be a heckuva lot more difficult and desolate even without our beloved pipes and bakkies!!! So here’s to them as well!!!