Three years ago today at 6:00 a.m. I asked Joanne "What's special about April 12th?" She shrugged her shoulders. Three and half hours later, surrounded by her family, she died. Until April 11th, she'd kept up with all the cards, letters and emails that came to her. Sent home from the hospital, to home hospice care, we expected to have two or three months with her, based on the doctors guess. She died in twenty two days. Her last meal at the table was on her birthday, April 1, which was also Easter Sunday. Dying is not easy but she didn't suffer a lot. She faced her death with calm confidence.
Now it's been three years since her death. That time seems both long and short. Grief weighs heaviest on me when I think about all she's missed. Her style was always full engagement in life. She took exceptional delight in her granddaughters and now they've grown three years beyond her last time with them. Not everything in these three years has been good as for example the pandemic. But she would have weathered that challenge with good courage. I've found a home in the land of grief and the poignancy of the power of the presence of absence ebbs and flows.
The grief is so powerful because life with her was a great gift. In the midst of my grief is profound gratitude that we could share so many years together. The grief is manageable because of the constant support of family and friends. Relationship have sustained me through her death and the time after.
God bless her memory! Rest in peace, good and faithful servant.
Takk for alt,
Al
Today.
1 comment:
❤️😢
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