Back to Living

My husband and I have had to ask what day it is for the last week or so.  The process of laying to rest one's mother is never easy.  It has exhausted us physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally.  Our trip to and from Huntsville, Alabama, was uneventful, for which we were grateful, and we returned on my husband's birthday, New Year's Eve, to 2 cats who were glad to see us, and life without Mom began.
We spent New Year's Eve at our friends Steve and Martha's house, relaxing with food and the warmth and company of good friends, in which we basked as if soaking up warm rays of sun.  New Year's day was spent catching our breath as we took down Christmas decorations, yet the daze of unreality enveloped us like fog, and we continued to grieve Mom's passing as we celebrated the fact that she had not suffered and was now in the arms of her Heavenly Father.
Humor managed to pierce our grief.  Flowers were awaiting our return home, and we recognized the name of one family but not of the other, so we e-mailed the familiar family and thanked them for their thoughtfulness and asked them to enlighten us on the identity of the other family.  We're old now, you know!  When I returned to work, I realized the unrecognized family on the flower card was actually one of my bosses!  I had to e-mail the recognized family and tell them that the mystery had been solved!  Why the mixup?  Because we know 2 families with the exact same spelling of the last name but with entirely different pronounciations of it, one friends from church and the other an attorney for whom I work!  With no first names, I naturally went to our church friends as the sender of the flowers.  We've had a good laugh over this!
So now it's back to reality.  A new year is here, and we'll be doing everything without Bob's mother for the first time.  We're extremely grateful for the wonderful days we had with her over the long Christmas weekend and extremely grateful that we had time to say goodbye in the hospital before life support was disconnected and Mom slid into eternity.  We're grateful for the cards, phone calls, flowers, and prayers of our friends.  We're grateful for loving family who surrounded us even as we surrounded them.  We're most grateful for the fact that Mom was a believer, and we know where she is and we know that we'll see her again.  What a blessed hope!
Bob has already felt the piercing reality that things have changed.  He always picked up things that Mom needed while he was in Sam's Club, and he realized the other day that he doesn't need to do that any more.  And that's the way it will be for all of us who loved her.  We'll do something ordinary and be reminded of Mom, what she liked, or the way she did something.  She now lives on in our hearts.
We've just learned that Bob's oldest daughter, Ellen, who is expecting her second child on June 1, will be having another boy.  When he arrives, that will be our 8th grandchild and our 7th grandson.  Cami is still the only granddaughter.  New life to look forward to even as we mourn Mom's passing. 
And so life goes on.