HUBBY'S CANCER APPOINTMENT WENT SO WELL that the doc said he doesn't have to have a scan next year, just some blood work. Will skip two years on scan unless something acts up. His blood work is very good and that's that. Very good report. Praise the LORD. This was a good report and a reason to be relieved able to have a productive day to shop and enjoy the weather. Off we'd go in hopes of getting much done. Our day would be full.
The morning started out with a trip to the post office for stamps and mailing a package to my Mom. Drove to Manhattan picking up a Starbucks going to the highly anticipated medical appointment. Checked out fine. Dropped a stack of cards at the Post Office. Left Manhattan to drive to Wamego stopping at the NEW DOLLAR TREE that's been open for a week. Such a nice store. Onto St. Marys for lunch at Sugar Creek for a Rachel Salad. Topeka was next for a Christmas ornament at Hallmark and I left without one as they were not what I had in mind. Will order online. Off to God's Storehouse where we found a large canvas for $12.oo that will be painted over. Extra nice canvas just right for a painting to hang over the sofa. Hubby asked what I was going to paint and I said a scene from the Flint Hills. grins. Nest was Natural Grocers for Castile Soap. They have a huge selection of different scents. Then to Sam's for paper plates. We use these to help cut down on washing dishes while we have so many projects around us that need our energy to complete. When the energy level is so low, I look for ways to help make life easier as best I can. Then drove to NOTO to Dillons for groceries. HOME. Unload and rest. Think I need to go to bed. The driving takes it out of me. Sorry, but that's the way it is these days.
Will rest and get up early so I can babysit on Saturday. The rest of the week-end will be dedicated to bringing in the Blue Willow china and starting to figure out how to arrange them in the china cabinet.
Back to walking, eating better and working on making our HOME a more beautiful place to live in. This will be a long term lifestyle.
When out shopping, it is very noticeable that CHRISTMAS decorating and shopping ideas are freely flowing. It seems to be in contrast with the THANKSGIVING theme. Will it continue to get earlier and earlier in the year as it use to be Thanksgiving came and the sales took over the day after marking the beginning of the Christmas Season.
I so remember walking with my cousin Denice downtown Marion after our big family Thanksgiving noon meal at the City Building when everyone looked forward to sitting around talking and getting caught up with one another. All attending participated in visiting if able. Leftovers were for supper, then clean-up. Good-byes were said and off we'd go our separate ways. When I was a young child, our family lived 5 hours away of driving the speed limit and this didn't stop us from staying until after supper before our long drive HOME in the dark.
The stars in the sky were twinkling bright white that could be seen through the smudged up windows that had moisture over them from the chilly condensation from the weather. We children would fall asleep waking as we drove up to the front of our house that we lived in.
Dad had 9 living siblings at the time and he enjoyed seeing them and their families plus his elderly mom. He was sentimental and family was a high priority to him. I loved seeing the masses of cousins when gathering. We were a mighty force to deal with. The moms in the group saw to it that the children were neatly dressed for the gathering along with their own personal fashions were well tailored including coifed hairstyles, make-up and jewelry. Each member of the family looked well kept. There were no torn up jeans and messy hair buns. The dads had slicked back hair, were clean shaven wearing clean clothing even if single.
Back to that walk with my favorite cousin. We waited until the noon meal was over where the children were playing together and were of the age that we didn't keep an eye on them like a hawk. Denice and I walked the small town sidewalks to chat about the events going on in our lives. That particular day, the weather was an unusually warm day for November and we could walk outside with no jackets or coats. It is a lovely memory I have of days gone by. A snapshot in the memory banks that I can call up any time. No one can take this from me. I see her. I hear her voice. I hear us laughing.
The last family Thanksgiving Dinner we had together was 8 years ago. My dad was in a home by this time. Mom ate dinner with him that day. She actually fed him. We had journeyed home afterwards. The next day, I received a panicky phone call from my sister as my dad had suffered a debilitating stroke. We drove back to Marion. Over the next twelve days, we'd go back and forth between Marion and the small town we were living in at the time. Husband was still employed at the time and he was still traveling back and forth to work and home then drive to Marion only to repeat the triangular pattern over the next 12 days. Dad would pass away on day twelve.
My sister and I slept in the Hospital room next to his the night before he died. The staff allowed us to stay in the empty room. Mom was given a comfortable recliner chair that was sitting right beside his bed to where it was like they were sleeping together. They were extremely close as Husband and Wife. Mom hadn't slept beside him for months as he was in the Home. Dad passed early in the morning the day he died being wakened by the nurses to tell us he was gone.
I got dressed. Walked into the room to see Dad in his bed as if he were asleep. Touching his forehead and hand, I was able to say a goodbye to him. I untied the colorful helium balloons I had bought him that were at the foot of his hospital bed. I asked my sister if she'd like to release them outside with me. Together we stood outside in the dark of that cold morning before the morning light shone to release the balloons watching them float away.
My Daddy was gone. We'd begin the preparation of Dad's funeral that would take place December 5, 2016. It was so strange to be standing in the hallway outside the Hospital room where his body lie as the mortician carefully placed Dad's frail body on the gurney to wheel him to the hearse that would take his body to the Mortuary. He'd be covered in a dark velvet burgundy colored blanket.
Perhaps in the back of my mind, I have some kind of mental block about this time of year as my Mother-in-law suffered a heart attack where she was life flighted to the Amarillo Heart Hospital with a continual heart attack. We went to see her, said our good-byes. The last of October, we suffered a devastating house fire that occupied our time taking care of the details that were before us. Dealing with this, we still managed to attend the family Thanksgiving Dinner only to have my Dad suffer a stroke that would take his life.
Close to two months later, my mother-in-law would die. If I could turn the clock back, I would have insisted that we stayed longer at the Heart Hospital while she was there instead of leaving so soon with a short visit. She'd suffer this awful continual heart attack. We'd visit her then return home to experience the house fire. We'd be going through that then celebrate Thanksgiving to where my dad suffered a stroke the following morning. We'd walk through that while dealing with the details of the house fire driving the triangular pattern between Hospital, work and home. Dad passed. The funeral. The grieving. Into the next year, Mother-in-law died. The funeral. The grieving. The continued work on rebuilding our home life as we looked for a house to buy. Our belongings that had been taken to see if they could be saved from the fire were beginning to return to us in the Spring. Over 650 boxes were returning to us. We were staying in this COTTAGE at the time as we owned it. The boxes were too many so a storage unit was rented to house the boxes and I was trying to figure how to go through he stored boxes in the unit. A house in a different community was found and we moved in May. All the boxes came with us and I'd be able to go through them in the house we bought. A very slow process.
This time of year is full of memories good and bad. Some days I believe I need to just sit and reminisce. Can one fully survive life when so many tragic things so close in time happen? Yes, but it has a serious affect on many. It did me. I need to focus on today and be fully present with the loved ones that I still have around me not forgetting that life is short. How should I live?
Today I will concentrate on babysitting my grandson. Then rest. Forge ahead on decluttering the stuff that is about me. With God's help, I will be victorious.
~d
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