The dreaded phone call

There is one thing expats the world over dread - a phone call from home saying that a loved one has died or is critically ill. There is nothing in the world that can prepare you for that call, but we all know that the longer we live abroad, the higher the chances we will receive that 'dreaded call" someday.

Unfortunately, I got that call for the first (and currently only) time this past summer. As luck has had it, any other time somebody close to me has died, I have been at home. But this time, my mother was taken critically ill while I was in Japan. Ironically, it was a few days before I was due to fly to Ireland to spend five months with her and my Dad.

Due to the time difference and the urgency of the situation, it was actually a text I received. I turned my phone on one Monday morning to see the text from my brother to get home as soon as possible as the doctor's had advised all siblings travel. She had been seriously ill in the past, but the doctors had previously never said to get the siblings home. This was the first time and reading that text quite literally knocked the life out of me. For about a minute I froze, I'm not sure I was breathing, I was in severe overwhelming shock. I will never forget it.

I haven't been able to say it publicly until now, but she died. But I was one of the lucky ones - she held on for me. The doctors had said on the Monday that she would be dead by the end of the day, but she lasted until Wednesday night. She died holding my hand an hour after I got to the hospital, straight from the airport. I got to say goodbye, which I am eternally grateful for.