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Our loving mother, Rita Darcy, was born in Limerick, Ireland on the 21st November 1943
to her parents Laurence Keane and Mary (Molly) Keane. Mom had six brothers and two sisters.
Mom was a wonderful person who is sorely missed. It’s such a pity that people who are reading this never had the chance to meet someone as truly remarkable as she was. Now what can I say about mom, oh dear, she still makes me laugh just looking back. Best not let out all our secrets otherwise she will be phoning me from heaven.
I will only briefly outline the journey together as a family that would test our strength, faith, and devotion. Mom had begun to lose a lot of weight two years ago and was very frail. However she still did all the things that she had always done, going to work and running around after us all. After a lot of tests by the hospital they were none the wiser as to what was wrong. We were assured as a family that Mom was alright.
Mom was rushed to the hospital on the 23rd May 2005, and after numerous tests, they discovered she had an Aschaemic Bowel. They operated on Mom and it was touch and go for three days. We were called by the doctors and told that Mom would not make it, however they did not know Mom. She was on a life support machine for three weeks with lots of complications, but I still knew she would come through. Her nickname by the nurses was Miracle Rita.
Everything from this point on is far too painful to explain, but Mom deteriorated not because of the operation, but lack of care and basic hygiene standards that are in our National Health Service. We decided to bring Mom home as we felt we could look after her better than the care she was receiving. We put our jobs on hold, and all moved back home temporarily with the help of amazing friends and co-workers. We locked up our homes and went home to Mom. We pulled off the impossible.
On the 12th January Mom was complaining of a stomach ache and generally feeling under the weather. Mom never complained of pain so I knew it was not right. I phoned the doctors, but they refused to come out due to her past history with her bowel. They said we had to take her back to the hospital, a decision that will haunt us all forever.
Mom was taken to the hospital and rushed back into theatre. However when they operated there was nothing wrong with her other than a water infection. Again we exhaled in relief, but that was short lived. Mom contracted Clostridum Difficle and she could not fight this super bug. Seven days later we were told she was not going to pull through this time, and in our hearts we knew this time that she was not going to come home. Mom called for us and asked us to let her go. She wanted our blessing. We told her it was alright and she said she would send us signs that she is still here. Although our hearts are still broken and a part of us died with Mom, we were very blessed to have had her. Mom went to sleep at 4.56AM with all the family there. She was so beautiful in life and she looked so beautiful asleep.
I would like to say "thank you" to the nurse that was with mom that night. Jane was absolutely wonderful and had looked after Mom in ICU. She cried so hard when Mom went to sleep. We sometimes forget that although they see this all the time, they are after all human, and one person can touch their hearts. We are proud that it was our mom.
http://ritadarcy.memory-of.com
