***TW*** Parental health and death stuff ***TW***

If you've read the last couple days of Morning Peeps (Life is Precious and Life Is Fragile, Too), you have the background on this, and I'm not going to rewrite it here. I'm posting now, here, because I really need help, thoughts, perspective, support.

My step-brother called this evening. He said his dad is still in ICU but off the cpap. Still has oxygen thru the tubes in his nose. Pulmonary fibroids were found on xray when he was hospitalized due to broken clavicle. That was on Sunday. Today doc says out of town family needs to come. He has two days, a week, maybe more.

I am currently out of town - yesterday flew in to see my sister. Checking airline to reschedule and I find out my connecting airport home is due for big storm tomorrow. (This is just a hassle, not a problem thus far.)

I cannot wrap my head around this. He was sitting up, fine, breathing on his own when I saw him Sunday. Before the fall which landed him in the hospital, he had seemed fine to me. I wasn't aware of any unusual problems. Active, going out to eat, going to senior center, driving. And now the doctor says he maybe has two days to live? How can that be?

The "same" thing happened to my mom two years ago. Out to dinner, a concert - and the next day to the hospital. Three weeks later she was dead.

Does going to the hospital kill people? Yes, I know it does.

I'm kind of - no, really a lot - freaked because of the similarity to what happened with my mom. Suddenly ill. Same hospital, same floor, same month, both with respiratory problems - unrelated to original hospital admission, even during an out-of-town sister visit. His is progressing faster, but with warning. Mom took a bit longer, but her dying was without warning.

I don't get it. I am in denial. I can't wrap my head around it. How can this be happening?

And further... if he does die... then my sister and I finally have to go through my mother's things.

Help.
-RT