My future mother in law just left to head back to New Orleans, and honey just left to go to work after being off since Friday. He's off tomorrow and works New Year's Eve. He should be home before midnight, though. Cop's schedules suck, sometimes, but that's how it goes.
It was nice having M.J. in town, we don't get to see her often. She made this incredible cheese cake for our Monday Night Football Party, which was a nice bonus on top of Drew Brees record breaking year. The fact that he broke Marino's record with a touchdown pass, in New Orleans and we beat the Falcons was awesome. We are hoping for another trip to the Super Bowl for our team this year!
Christmas itself was nice. This year was different in as much as we didn't have to spend Christmas Eve at the hospital with mom, like last year. Although it's been a rough year for the family, and especially my mother with her knee, we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
It's miraculous, really, considering that at one point we were being told to expect the worst. It's also a lesson in how to never take things for granted. A seemingly simple surgery can cascade into complications galore and change one's life in ways unintended. This isn't to say that the experience was all bad. One learns things about oneself when faced with challenges. Whether we grow from them or not is up to each individual.
My Aunt Merle passed away in November. I am still so sad over that. My mother lost her only remaining sibling with her passing, and she was extremely close to Aunt Merle. If there is a blessing amongst this, it is that mom was well enough, or had the strength, to spend the last two weeks of Aunt Merle's life with her. She was at her side, along with my cousins, when she passed. I got to say a good-bye to her, as well, although I didn't know it was a good-bye at the time.
About a month before she died, when my dog accidentally called her on my cell phone, we had a nice chat. She told me that she was sorry to have to die before I graduated from school, but that she would proudly be watching me from Heaven. She went down hill so fast after that, we thought that she had at least a year. As much as we hate the fact that she is gone, the other blessing in this is that she did go so soon. The cancer had gotten into her bones, already weakened by Rheumatoid Arthritis, and that is a horribly painful cancer to have. At least she didn't have to suffer for a year, drugged up and in bed. She would have hated that.
Another blessing was the fact that I got to see some of my cousins again, and it had been far too long. We all live so far away from each other, our lives being lived, we never really lost touch, but we didn't see one another as often as we used to. In the way of love and family, though, it was like the years fell away. So when I found myself reminiscing about childhood Christmases at Aunt Merle's this season, it was bitter sweet, but also comforting. Especially when I hold, and smell the small rosary that my cousins (Aunt Merle's daughters) Carol and Mary had made. It is a beautiful piece and it's filled with the crushed flowers from Aunt Merle's funeral arrangements. They had one made for my mother, me and my two sisters. I carry it everywhere with me. I can wear it as a bracelet, but I am not ready for that yet.
I will wear it on my wedding day. I will wear it when I graduate from nursing school.
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