Dea Heron, RIP

I've been careful to avoid discussing Dea's long-running problems with the health care system here in Ontario, even with anonymizing her, as the details could have been traced back to her and made an already insanely frustrating experience that much worse. I no longer need to worry about that, as Dea is no longer with us. She died in her sleep on Monday night or Tuesday morning.

She'd recently been in hospital for an operation (one of several that may have been necessary), and appeared to be recovering rapidly. Elizabeth had taken her home from the hospital on the weekend, and had talked to her on the phone on Monday. During that conversation, Dea said that she was sleeping a lot, which was understandable after several days in the hospital.

After several attempts to contact Dea on Tuesday, Elizabeth had the building manager try to knock on her door. There was no response, but the manager said that the cat was meowing quite loudly. When the manager used her key to enter the apartment, she found that Dea had passed away in bed while reading a book.

As Dea had no relatives in Canada, it is not yet clear what arrangements will be made for her funeral.

Darrell Markewitz has a brief note posted at his blog.