I knew she was ill. I knew she had slipped into a coma. And at 4 this morning I woke up and knew of a certainty that she was gone. Now Kath got a call a few minutes ago confirming that Leah Adezio had passed away yesterday.
Leah was a wonderful fan, wonderful pro, wonderful friend, wonderful person. She lost a sister to an early death, a brother to a violent death several years ago, and then her husband passed away unexpectedly. And now she’s gone, liver failure followed by kidney failure.
Kath and I saw her last Friday in the hospital. I didn’t say anything until now because her brother, Brian, wanted to try and keep things quiet (Kath posted about it but only in the most general and anonymous of terms.) Her skin had gone yellowish green, stark against her red hair, and I was fortunate enough that she was still conscious, still had her mental faculties. We never uttered the words “Good-bye,” but we both knew. She was in and out of consciousness Saturday, but mostly out. I came by on Sunday, hoping to have a chance to talk to her one final time. She was breathing heavily, labored. She’d been sleeping since late the previous day and although I stayed for a bit, talked to her gently, she never opened her eyes. Finally I leaned over as I was about to leave and kissed her on the cheek. In her sleep, she reached up, touched her face where my lips had touched hers, and smiled warmly. But she never woke up.
She helped me through a very difficult period in my life, and she will never have the chance to see her two great sons start their own families or bounce grandchildren on her knee. It is bitterly unfair and I rage at the injustice of it all.
I will miss her terribly.
PAD
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