Oops! Forgot to cover the business.
    Although we are observing Mom's request for no funeral and have fulfilled her request to have a party on her, there will eventually be a graveside service. She is a Navy WWII veteran. Her wish, besides donating her body to science, was that her ashes be buried next to my father's plaque (he was buried at sea with full military honors) at the VA cemetery at which that plaque resides. Two of my brothers-in-law are in the process of arranging this and a military burial. Her ashes will not be available until June, probably, so this is when the ceremony will take place.
    I am acutely aware of the backlog of much appreciated condolence comments and emails. I will be responding to each of you, I promise. In the meantime, I thank you, profusely, for thinking of me. Your thoughts give me the courage to continue through this strange transition I ordered for myself by virtue of surrendering to the pleasure of being my mother's companion for fifteen years (practically to the day, I recently discovered) and her full time companion and caregiver for twelve of those years.
    Please know that through the extraordinary generosity of my family, the wise final directives of my mother and the deeply sympathetic offerings of support from our business acquaintances, I am safe and sound and won't have to scramble for survival or to find a new home for at least enough time for me to get a hold of myself and this new phase of my life and figure out where to go and what to do from here.
    Although my local relationships have been marked by distance over the last few years, friends have been coming to my aid. One such local long time friend even expressed her gratitude to my family for coming in quickly to prop me up after Mom's death and has assured them that she will pick up where they left off, work hard to ease my transition and make sure my heart, while it is confused and in mourning, won't break. Surprisingly, to me, I have no qualms about letting everyone and anyone who knew and loved my mother and knows and loves me help me through this.
    And, yes, these journals will continue. Slowly, at first, I'm thinking, although, well, who knows...
    ...our first snow of the season is rapidly closing in, which delights me. It would probably have also delighted my mother to know that she would miss it! My immediate plan (I have no others, yet) is to huddle in my favorite weather with my cats and my sisters' and friends' check-ins and allow all aspects of mourning full sway. With that said, I think I'll heat up some of last night's left over excellent pizza (I'm finally hungry, again...I think that's a good sign), find something really ridiculous to watch and relax.
    Later.
- posted by Gail Rae @ 21:22   email  this post