Last Word

Tim Botos: In death, Agnes “Aggie” Meyer got the last word.

She had plenty to show for her 85 years on this earth, most of it enjoyed before she entered Manor Care nursing home. And long before Alzheimer’s disease took her mind, and pneumonia ultimately took her life last Fourth of July. Then her body was laid to rest in Sunset Hills Burial Park.

Near the end, it was so bad that Aggie didn’t recognize her son. Her replies to simple questions were nonsensical utterances of “7, 8, 9, 10.” In the evenings, her husband of 34 years, Cletus Meyer Sr., visited her bedside and spoon-fed Aggie because she could barely hold a sandwich.

To the outside world, the warm scene was a fitting end for a sweet old couple living out their twilight years.

Behind closed doors, though, Aggie was a tortured soul.


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