Circle of Life

The arsenal of newborn diapers and wipees filed into the changing table is a comforting site for the nearing arrival of the twins.
What a joyful time.
While I show my mother the special blankets we received for Micah and Magnolia, other thoughts distracted us.
When will my Tia Goldie die? One day after being removed from 'life support?' Two days? Two weeks?
The uncertainty was sealed when my mother called 10 minutes after leaving my house and parking at the hospital. She said my eldest aunt had drifted away about five minutes ago. She passed on.
Apnea most likely took over for too long a period between robotic breaths. Her glucose sustainance was taken away. Though her corroded liver and failed kidneys would have poisoned her anyway.
She had grown close to my daugthers, Bunny, and her little "YaYa," during her year-and-a-half-long cancer treatments here, away from her home in Laredo.
Hopefully she heard me last night when I told her we loved her and that the twins would be born any day now.
My plan was that she would hear me and open her eyes briefly to see how enormous I had grown.
She didn't.