On the ninth day of the ninth month, Friday, September 9th, 2022, my wife Nicole had her final session of dialysis. Three times a week, for three to four hours each round, her blood would be slowly removed from her body, filtered through a machine and pumped back in. After twelve years, she had decided she could not endure it any longer.

On that final day, she went to the local Shakespearean Gardens, and released a monarch butterfly newly emerged from its cocoon which her friend Pamela Jane Gerrand was keeping safe.

Noteworthy, in the background when the butterfly takes off is the county jailhouse. She said she felt like was breaking out of prison by giving up her ill body. This was later affirmed when a painting of a mother bear breaking out a cell appeared in my inbox from artist Bob Moran. I've since purchased a framed print which is hanging on the wall.

Letting her go still hurts so much. And I don't think it'll ever stop hurting. But I feel some peace knowing she's free like that butterfly from the prison of her many illnesses.

For more about Nicole's life and death visit the Sunflower Page: https://blazingpinecone.com/mysunflower