The Good Things

** A pictureless, personal blog post. **

I have personal rules about what I will and will not blog about. Most of the past three months falls in the latter category. It was a time of stress, confusion, and horror as we lived through the rapid decline and death of Mom.

As life begins to return to normal (if leaving for a four week trip out west can be counted as normal) I want to take a few minutes and list some of the good things that happened during that time period.

Brother Dave and I got to know each other very well. He is a kind, caring man who spent Mom's last month with her while ignoring his business in Oregon. We gathered information and made life and death decisions together. We meditated and prayed together, each respecting the other's spiritual beliefs. We talked for hours and hours, and realized that we like each other very much.

Husband Jay was my earthly rock. He did all the grocery shopping and ran mundane errands so I didn't need to be concerned about having food or whatever else I needed. He cooked some great comfort food. Twice he did all my laundry. ALL of it. He let me talk about things he didn't want to hear about, and he let me cry in his arms. When we had wintery roads, he gave his 4WD Explorer keys to brother Dave and insisted we take it. And he prayed for us.

The strength of the Lord carried me through. I could not have done this without my faith, my Bible, and the prayers of my friends.

After five years, I am now able to visit son John, daughter-in-law Anne, and granddaughter Sydney in Idaho. I am caretaker to no one and dogless. It feels new and strange and I'm still adjusting to the situation. Next Tuesday I leave for Oregon to spend spring break with my Idaho family, then fly to Phoenix to meet Jay and spend some time with his family. Jay is driving us back to Michigan via the Grand Canyon and several other national parks. We're going to do some furniture shopping in Illinois and be home whenever we get there - very strange indeed!