February 14, 2013 AD
Death of Patrick Joseph Lahey
Patrick Lahey died of heart failure in the cardiac ward of the Royal Hobart Hospital at 9:14 pm, aged eighty-seven, after eight days in hospital. Nicholas and Fiona visited that morning, Solomon telephoned from Melbourne, and Sarah sat with him into the evening before Jane sent her home. Jane was alone with him at the end. His last words were that the workshop door needed oil.
Patrick Lahey died in the cardiac ward of the Royal Hobart Hospital at 9:14 pm, eight days after the heart failure he had concealed for three years finally put him there. He was eighty-seven. The day had been hot, and the heat stayed in the room after dark despite the air conditioning.
He had refused anything that would dull him past the point of knowing where he was. Through his last day he slipped in and out of sleep, and each time he woke he was lucid. Nicholas and Fiona came in the morning. Solomon telephoned from Melbourne in the afternoon and spoke to his father for a little under two minutes. Oscar was in London. Sarah came straight from her shift and sat with her grandfather until eight, when Jane insisted she go home and sleep.
Jane was alone with him at the end. She had spent the later part of her working life as a palliative care nurse, and she recognised the change in his breathing well before the monitors confirmed it. She did not call for anyone. She held his hand and spoke to him quietly about the life they had made, thanking him for things neither of them had ever said aloud.
Shortly before the end, Patrick opened his eyes and told her that the workshop door needed oil. They were his last words. Jane laughed for the first time in a week, and she was still holding his hand when the line on the monitor went flat.
The duty nurse found her like that some minutes later. Jane asked for a little more time before the doctor was called, and was given it. Then she telephoned Sarah, who had not yet reached home.
