The Loss of BOTH Parents

My Mother (Arlene Reardon) and my Father (Jerry Reardon Sr) have been married for 48 years and have always been the picture perfect couple when it comes to what everyone wants their marriage to be like… They always held hands, kissed and anytime either would go somewhere there was always a kiss, I Love You and Be Careful given before the other left… they never went to bed angry at each other.
Many years ago my mother suffered from back pains and had been to  many different doctors to try to figure out what was wrong over the years, each of them giving her a different kind of medicine, at one point a new doctor told her its all in her head and all she had to do was stop all the medications and just keep thinking back to a time before her back was hurting. She did this and a mixture of quitting the medications cold turkey and the constant thinking of back before the pain she completely lost her mind and actually thought she was back 20 years ago, not remembering her newer friends, not knowing who I was because at this point I was about 35 so she only knew she had a 10 year old son not a grown son, she wanted cigarettes again even though she had stopped smoking about 18 years prior. I had to call the doctors and have her taken to the hospital where she was admitted for about 2 weeks to get her back onto the medications and then slowly taken off.. after all this she just kept going down hill with her health and at one point had fallen and hit her head which created all new problems. She had gotten fluid in her brain yet they couldn’t do anything because of the deterioration of her bone mass and doctors didn’t think she would survive a surgery to remove the fluid. As more time went her health still getting worse and worse all the while my dad was right by her side taking care of her every step of the way refusing to let her go into a retirement home or hospice as pre- agreed by them both.
Around the beginning of September 2011 my mother almost passed away but somehow survived, at that time her and my father decided they wanted to go together and not either one having to live with out the other. On September 20th 2011 they decided to take their lives together however my mother was too weak to actually pull the trigger so my father shot her himself. He wanted to go with her so badly that the 1st shot to himself did not kill him so somehow he managed the strength to put the gun back to his head and fire a second shot….

I completely respect their decision and have NO ILL feelings towards either one for this, I just wish I could have had the chance to say Good-Bye before they left. I know they are both in a better place now and am grateful for that.