The White Light

Carmen, head of housekeeping, returned to work Monday, eager to work hard. In the time she had been gone, she had gone to her village to take her mother to Merida and then taken her mother to the village to die. Or so it seemed. She was called back on a Tuesday, after working a bit here, and helped transport her mother back to Merida.
There, she was placed in a family style suite. Carmen bathed her, powdered her and applied cream to her rough spots. She hugged her a lot and doused her neck with vanilla perfume.
She said her mother's pain was taken care of and she drifted in and out of consciousness for several days. She would always wake up alert and talk about seeing a very bright white light and her mother and father. Her mother and father! At age 84, she said they looked the same in that bright white light.
Carmen thought she was asleep when she went to dab the corners of her mouth, but she was not breathing. Two nurses came in and said a doctor would have to say if she was gone. He did.
It was a peaceful passing from the pain of ovarian cancer.
Carmen returned to her daughter's re-hospitalization after a c-section birth. My gift in desperation for the child who had everything turned out to be perfect. Karina didn't get to buying Huggies, baby powder, zinc oxide and a baby bottle. Which Carmen quickly put into service while Karina was being patched up.
Talk about the circle of life!