Mark and I started our day thinking about making cookies, but we got a call that Pui, a young friend we had visited in the hospital last week was expected to die soon. When we saw her last week, she knew us, greeted us, talked to us, and was expected to go home in a few days. Two days ago I could not find her in the hospital and thought she had gone home, but instead she was taken to ICU.
After the call came, Mark and I jumped in a cab to go see Pui, our Thai friend expected to die. This young Thai girl had married friend Ian six months ago and moved to Switzerland. She had recently come back to Thailand to visit her family. She became ill and was hospitalized. It was very sad when we arrived at ICU. The ICU room was filled with Thai people from the small village she was from including her mother and father and her husband, Ian who is from England, but lives and currently works in Switzerland. We all cried and said our goodbyes. When I said mine I saw she had money in each hand. She was unresponsive and she was having difficulty breathing. She was on a respirator. It could not be removed. I learned that this is not an option in a Thai hospital. Once on the respirator there is no pulling the plug, however the parenteral nutrition and medication could be withheld. Pui had been coded earlier and that could be with held. As a respiratory therapist Mark was very interested in figuring out what was going on. he talked with the doctor and nurse in charge and looked at the medications and the EKG strips and he studied the ventilator settings which were off a bit in his mind, but it didn't really matter since Pui was dying. When Mark and I left and were waiting outside for a cab, I asked friend Jin about the money in Pui's hands. I learned that this money is for Pui to spend for herself when she gets to Paradise. When she is cremated at the temple in her village, the money will be burned also. The Thai people firmly believe she will have that money when she arrives in Paradise and that she needs it. I thought to go back again tonight and put some money in her hands, but I'm not sure I will get that chance now.
Mark and I came home to make cookies and finish cooking a gallon of spaghetti sauce that we are making. Ian and maybe others will come for supper.
We had just finished baking the cookies when we received a call that friend Pui had died. Our golden girl, who always had a really big smile, who could eat crispy fried bugs, who was able to charm everyone she met, and who seemed to have the world by the tail, was gone.
Pui's unexpected death brought home to Mark that he will not necessarily die before me or before all his friends even though he has cancer and it has metastacized to his liver.
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