Mitra thought her life should also be finished after the death of her first-born son. She stayed with Doris for a week, but realized it was too much for Doris to look after her incapacitated mother-in-law while she was grieving for her husband. Mitra decided to go back to the centre to give Doris some rest. Mitra had lost a lot of her vitality during the process of mourning.
When she came back, she could hardly walk. Everybody was surprised how quickly she had changed. She refused to go downstairs for meals because she wasn’t able to do it alone. They brought her food upstairs to her room. She hardly ate anything except bananas and some drinks.
Mitra was going downhill very fast. The staff told her family that she would have to be moved to the nursing side because she needed full-time care. They would wait another week until the nursing side had an empty bed for her.
In the afternoon, the housekeeper was in that area, when she heard a big thump in Mitra’s room. She went downstairs to tell Dona about it. Dona went quickly upstairs to Mitra’s room. She found her on the floor, unconscious and bleeding from her nose and mouth. She quickly called the ambulance. The paramedics tried to help her regain consciousness but they couldn’t. They gave her oxygen. She was breathing without any other visible signs of life.
Dona called Doris because she was in regular contact with Mitra and told her about the situation with Mitra’s fall and how the ambulance took her to the General Hospital. As soon as Doris got the news, she called Stefan, and then Sofija in Toronto because she knew Sofija would never forgive her if she wasn’t called right away.
Doris told Sofija to stay calm until she called her back after she visited Baba in the hospital.
“Please, call me right away. If Baba is doing poorly, I want to come home right away to see her.”
“I will call you. Please don’t panic. Hopefully, Baba isn’t so bad.”
When Doris came to the hospital and saw her mother-in-law lying in bed, similar to the last days of Marko’s life, she knew right away it wasn’t good. She kept calling her, “Mom, mom, it’s Doris. Wake up.”
All Doris’s calling was to no avail; Mitra’s condition didn’t change. Mitra’s son Stefan came with his wife. There were other relatives and friends whispering, “It’s sad for the family to suffer two losses in such a short time.”
Stefan asked Doris to go and pick up Sofija after she finished her exam the next day and bring her to the hospital. Mitra’s condition remained the same. She was breathing only with the help of the machines.
When Sofija came to see her baba, she had been in the same condition for three days. When Sofija saw her baba motionless, she put her head on Mitra’s chest pleading with her to wake up.
“Sofija is here, wake up, Baba. We haven’t said everything we wanted to. Baba, please wake up, please, we haven’t completed your diary. We have to do it. That is why you have to wake up. What can I do without you here? Come on, I want to hear that happy voice of yours and that wonderful sense of humour you always entertained me with. I love you, Baba, I love you so much, please don’t leave me. My life won’t be the same without you.”
As Sofija said this, tears poured out of her swollen eyes. But her pleading didn’t have any effect. Mitra didn’t give any sign she’d heard. The doctor knew of Mitra’s tragedy. The family met with the doctor to make some decisions about what could be done for Mitra, if anything. The doctor’s opinion was that she would not get better if she didn’t get better in the first five days after her accident. “I believe her subconscious does not want her to come back and on top of that, her vitality at 90 isn’t that of a younger person.”
The family members gave each other questioning looks. Sofija spoke first, “I would like it if we give Baba a few more days. Then if she doesn’t get better, we will make a decision.”
Sofija’s family, especially her parents, didn’t want Sofija to stop going to her classes, “You know that Baba wanted us to do the right thing and do things that are beneficial to us especially to our future. Please do not disappoint her. Remember how much she loved you unselfishly.”
Sofija travelled back and forth to school every day just to be with her baba, as long as she could. She even brought pen and paper pretending that she was ready to continue with the diary. “There is still some gravel left.” She reminded her baba about all the wonderful things they’d done together.
MItra didn’t react to any of her pleadings. After five days in the same condition, the doctor and the family made the decision to take her off the machine and let Mitra follow her son. Stefan told the family and the doctor that his mother had expressed the wish her family would not take drastic measures to keep her alive, if she was in the situation she was in now. “She told me that on her last visit to my home a couple of months ago.”
Everybody agreed to let Baba go, but Sofija still wanted her baba to stay around. For a couple more days, they worked on Sofija and finally she came to understand that she had to let go of her hope for Baba to get better. She had to agree with the family and let her go. They decided that the coming Wednesday, they would do that on October 12th at 10:00 am.
Sava arrived from Ottawa with her partner two days after her mother’s accident. She was there all the time beside her mother’s bed. On Tuesday, the room was full of family members. One by one they said goodbye to Mitra. The three last ones were Sava, Stefan, and Sofija. They let Sofija be the last one to say goodbye to her baba because of their exceptional relationship and closeness.
When Sofija came out from the room, she was sobbing and crying hysterically. In the morning, they all came an hour before the scheduled time. They waited a few minutes for the nurse to fix the room nicely. The family brought a nice embroidered cover that Mitra always liked and spread it over her body.
They also brought two beautiful flower arrangements to put on each side of her bed. The doctor came in and shook hands with all the members of the family. He said a few words and complimented the family for making the right decision.
Father Nikola came in at 8:00 am and prayed to God for Mitra to forgive all her sins and take her soul to His heavenly Kingdom. Everything was ready. Sava, Stefan, Doris, and Sofija stood closest to Mitra holding her hands. Together, the family said a prayer and crossed themselves. When everything was ready, the doctor disconnected the machine.
After he disconnected the machine, Mitra slightly opened her eyes and looked around. There was a faint smile on her face before her last breath.
Mitra knew that for the last moment of her life, her family was with her. She left the world with a smile knowing she didn’t die alone, even though it was not in her home.
Acknowledgements
Many people deserve to be acknowledged for helping me put my novel together.
The most deserving of these is my brother Branko Vinčíć, who was tireless in reading and editing this manuscript. Also, many thanks to Mr. George Budimir, my friend Professor Julia Frankel, Mary-Anne Kenney, and my niece and nephew, Nada and Simo Katić, who refreshed my memories of back home.
About the Author
Mirjana Katić was born in the former Yugoslavia in 1938. Her brother Dusan Vinčíć sponsored Mirjana's immigration to Canada in 1958. Mirjana's first novel, Stephen's Long Weekend, explores the importance of human values in the face of today's extravagance and greed. Baba's Story is inspired by her own experiences after moving to Canada. This is her second novel.
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