Tag: death
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Dog is God Spelled Backwards, Finale
Pablo asleep under the Christmas tree. Photo courtesy: Ayoung Kim The year before his passing, he crawled under the Christmas tree and fell asleep on top of the presents. To remind us of the gift he was and will always be. —Dog is God Spelled Backwards, part 1 The routine We woke up to rain
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Dog is God Spelled Backwards, part 4
Photo courtesy: Ayoung Kim I took the boys to the park. Two men waved me over—I think they’re both deaf and homeless. One man wanted to know what happened to Pablo’s legs. I told him it was bandaged to protect the pressure wounds. He didn’t understand, so I lied and said, “His joints gets stiff.”
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Mangia Sarcola, part 4
Panel 3 of José, “mamma” (mommy). Watercolor and pen, by Ayoung Kim This day is soft in my memory —as if soft clouds frame every moment in a benevolent cushion. José had spent the previous twenty-four hours unloading his bowels and guts. It smelled foul, like poison coming out of him. In the weak, early
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Mangia Sarcola, part 3
“Dreaming of the dog,” ink on paper, by Ayoung Kim I don’t cry as much anymore. You get used to it. Death. We thought we had to euthanize José three times already. We’ve made the decision to forego chemo. We’ve had the discussion of If He Goes During the Night. If he goes during the
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Mangia Sarcola, part 2
Panel 2 of Pablo, “m’ama, non m’ama, m’ama (she loves me, she loves me not, she loves me). Watercolor and pen, by Ayoung Kim José collapsed again last night. One minute he’s whining with joy as I come up the stairs, holding the stuffed octopus in his mouth. The next, I’m taking a steaming hot
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Mangia Sarcola, part I
We found out that José has cancer. It’s hemangiosarcoma, our veterinarian said. I don’t know if it’s the spread-really-aggressively kind or the spread-more-slowly kind.C (my fiancé at the time) asked, How long does he have?Anywhere from three months to one year, she replied.C turned to our little altar on the mantle. Crying openly, he lit