I was awaken by the screams of my Father telling us to call 9-1-1. Out of my bedroom I ran to see what was going on! I saw my Mother, my best friend, laying on the floor with my Father hovering over her performing CPR. He was pounding on her chest and giving mouth-to-mouth. I ran from the bedroom yelling for my Brother, who’s bedroom was upstairs. I got to the kitchen and dialed 9-1-1.
The operator was nice on the phone and tried to keep me calm and find out what the emergency was.
“My Mother! She’s laying on the floor and not breathing! My Father is trying to save her!”
She assured me that help was on its way. Looking so far back now, I can’t remember if I stayed on the phone with them or not.
I went back to the bedroom to tell my Father “Help is on the way!”
Crying in hysterics, my Father asked me to call my Aunt and Uncle and have them come over. The entire time my Father was trying to save my Mother.
I called my Aunt and Uncle, on my Father’s side, and asked them to come ASAP. They lived within 5 minutes and we at my home in no time.
By this time, the paramedics and police had arrived. They shooed my Brother and I out of the bedroom as they broke out their medical kits and “worked” on my Mother.
The last thing I remember, other than my Mother leaving my home on a gurney, was seeing her eyes roll back in her head and some white slobber coming out the side of her mouth. I knew she was gone. The sight may me so nauseous, I threw up my dinner in the kitchen.
My Aunt and Uncle took my Brother and I to their home while my Father followed the paramedics to the hospital.
My Aunt made us very comfortable at their house. I laid in my Cousin’s bed until I heard my Father come in. He said “Mom is gone.” Those words will forever remain in my memory as well as the sight of seeing my Mother laying on the floor in their bedroom, dying.
My Father took my Brother and I back to our home. There was so much mess left on their floor in their bedroom. Syringes, needles, bandage wrappers, etc. It’s another sight that I’m sure none of us ever forgot.
I saw my Mother, my best friend, pass away that night over 30 some years ago. I was just 11 years old and remember it as if it were yesterday. The events of that evening will always remain with me as scars on my heart. The night my Mother, my best friend, was taken from me and my family.