Christmas Eve 1983 -- Terra Alta WV - When the Power Was Out

Photo is of our tree 1983.

 Ask anyone over the age of 35 in my small town, and they can tell you all about Christmas 1983 because it was so unusual.  It was the most unique Christmas eve of my life, and I know there will never be another like it -- I was still a child, and although I was old enough that Santa no longer visited me, there was still the awe of Christmas and the joy of childhood surrounding the holidays that I will never be able to relive.

My dad was working at the equivalent of 911 as a dispatcher.  He was to get off work at 4, our annual party usually started at six.  I was in the living room listening to Marty Robins and Bobby Helms records on the old record player with the 8-Track tape deck.  I was bouncing off the walls because I was so excited that my aunts, uncles, cousins, grandmothers and step-grandfathers were going to converge on the house, and of course presents.  (Now I know the real gift was all the family's PRESENCE and not the physical gifts of my Bob Ross Joy of painting set I received that year.)

I drug my small little toddler table to the kitchen.  Mom always told me I needed to sit there to make room for the adults.  I idolized my cousin who was six years older than I, and I begged her each year to sit with me at this tiny table.  She was tall, unlike me, and her knees were taller than the table.  But I didn't want to have to sit by myself.  She dutifully sat with me, and while I can't remember much except being thrilled she was sitting with me.  She would have been a senior in high school that year.

As I was using Windex on the table, "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" slowed to a stop as all the lights went out.  Mom was outside shoveling snow so Dad wouldn't have to do it after working all day.

I didn't think anything about the power going out.  I mean, I was a kid, and Christmas was still magical.  Little did I know how unique that night was about to become.

Mom came in, chilled from being out in the cold.  I looked up weather history for our town, and winds were as high as 33 miles an hour and the temp had a HIGH that day of under 20 degrees.  Mom curled up in her snug sack -- a 1980s version of a Snuggie -- only it didn't have arms as it draped around you. She was in her gold and brown blanket when she picked up the rotary phone that was canary yellow and called her sister.  They started out talking about the turkey because Mom was baking the bird for dinner that evening, and she was worried about food poisoning if the electric didn't come back on soon.  (In reality, it would have just been undercooked at that point, and since there was no heat, there really wasn't any worry about if it would be "fit to eat" as she kept saying as she also called my grandmother to get her opinion on the fowl.)

I pulled the afghan that Grandma Bessie made over me as I was starting to get chilled by this time.  We had natural gas for heating, and it relied on the electric to kick on, so in addition to no electric, we had no heat. I was worried about Christmas -- would it be cancelled?  (I have since learned Christmas always comes, it's parties and festivities that can be cancelled.). As I fretted over if my cousin would be joining me at the toddler table, I braided the fringe on the afghan to help calm my nerves.  Mom watched the clock that Dad had given her the previous Christmas with worry as she bit her fingernails.

Dad came home at about 4:30 and said power was out all over the area.  The substation in the next town was down.  He rummaged in the olive green fridge and cussed about all that was there for him to eat there that day was salami, which he detested.  After he ate something cold, he called his brother to see how they were.  My aunt and uncle were not just okay, but doing great.  They had wood stove.  My dad wasn't always very good to his brother, but my aunt and uncle invited us down if we got too cold.  By this time, Mom was holding our guinea pig in an attempt to keep both her and the guinea pig warm.  Mom and Dad discussed the invitation and decided to wait a while to see if the power would return.  I was worried about my goldfish, Abraham Elizabeth. I had won her at a carnival two years prior.  Mom had lit a couple candles in the living room for light and I put the fish bowl near one to try and keep her warm.  Finally, Dad called the sheriff's office where he worked and told Mom it didn't look like electric would be restored anytime soon.  So we bundled up and headed to Dad's truck to drive the mile to my uncle's house.  Mom wouldn't let me bring the goldfish because she said moving the bowl to the truck in the sub zero weather and then into the warm house would be worse for the fish than leaving her at home.  We took the guinea pig in a box high enough my uncle's dog couldn't get to her.

After we got out of our coats and boots, reveled in the warmth, we started noticing we were hungry.  It was probably about 7 pm by this time, and we had eaten lightly all day expecting a huge meal that evening.  My aunt was going to bring the tossed salad to our family gathering, so we gathered around the table and had salad for Christmas eve dinner.  

Dad was a volunteer EMT and he had his pager with him.  It was a monstrosity of a thing -- much larger than a pack of cigarettes.  It kept going off about Santa being sighted in different towns in the county all night long.  The dispatcher on duty was having a boring evening, and for kids like me, even though I didn't believe in Santa anymore, it was so much fun to hear Santa was seen in Tunnelton -- then Kingwood, and then Terra Alta. 

My dad and my uncle decided to go check on some elderly folks to make sure they were okay.  This was before warming stations were opened during a disaster.  I fully expected them to return with a few people, but they didn't.  My aunt loved candles, and she had candles everywhere.  She lit them all, and it gave such a magical glow over everything.  The candle light reflected in both my mom's and my aunt's owl-like glasses, and I curled up on the couch under some afghans just enjoying a Christmas that was so different.

With all the candles, the wood stove going, and all of us talking, my aunt started to get warm.  She took off her sweater.  She was wearing a flesh colored turtleneck underneath, but in the dim candlelight, my dad couldn't tell she had anything on and the look on his face was priceless.  We all laughed about that.  

All around the living room, we dozed, until very early in the morning all the lights came back on.  Somehow it was decided (maybe because I was so asleep?) that I was going to spend the night there since it was warm and Mom and Dad would go home.  I remember padding up the stairs to sleep in the bed with my aunt as my uncle spent the night on the couch.  It was so odd the next morning waking in a house that was not my own on Christmas morning -- one of only twice in my life that has ever happened.  I called Mom and Dad headed down to pick me up.

Our usual Christmas breakfast of pancakes with turkey gravy was held off until December 26 that year because the turkey was still in the oven, and Mom always made the gravy with leftovers.  Mom, Dad, and I opened gifts from each other, and it was later that day that everyone came to our house for the Christmas celebration.  It was 24 hours later, but the food was just as good, conversation of the previous night was the main topic, gifts were opened, and my senior in high school cousin joined me at the toddler sized table.

On the first day back to school, our class was all abuzz about how different our Christmas was -- so much so that my 5th grade reading teacher said, "Okay, we're going to go around the room and everyone can tell about your Christmas eve, so we can get back to learning."  The only story I remember was of a boy who lived in our state, but his power was serviced through Maryland.  He said they had electric but they looked out and saw West Virginia without electric and that their Maryland neighbors had it.

Memories are often formed when we don't know they are being made.  Sometimes it is something different that makes the usual unusual.  I am sure that this year, 2020, will be remembered by many people for a lifetime.  My husband and I are joining his family over Zoom for dinner and gift opening.  We are a first time aunt and uncle ourselves, and we have yet to meet the precious bundle of joy.  She is now nine months old.  We had hoped to visit earlier this year, but I got sick the week she was born, and then lockdown happened the next time we thought we would be visiting.  I am planning a time capsule memory box for her, and I took a photo of our first Facetime since that was the first time we met her.

So, maybe this year will be to the children of today like Christmas 1983 was to me -- different, and it is my most vivid memory of childhood Christmas because it doesn't blur together like so many other of the holidays do.  I even remember I got a toy Adam "computer" that year.  (It would play Colecovision games and had a cassette of a Buck Rogers game that came in the package.) 

My goldfish survived the night, and for whatever reason, my mother always read a lot of books where people died.  One of the books she gave me for Christmas was about a girl whose brother died.  I read it over the next few days, and had already cried enough knowing my goldfish wasn't going to live much longer that I didn't shed any tears when my fish died at age 2 years, 3 months.

Christmas 1983 wasn't what anyone would have asked for, but I will always remember it as one of my favorite Christmases.  

Honoring Your Parents at Your Wedding When Both are Deceased

Photo Courtesy Kelley Bittner Photography

FTC disclaimer:  I received the photo frames from Reed & Barton in exchange for this post.  All ideas and opinions are my own.  Post contains affiliate links.

When I was planning my wedding, I spent hours online trying to find ideas to honor both of my parents at my wedding.  I found ideas to honor a parent who is deceased, but no ideas when you are trying to honor both parents.   I spent almost more time on this part of wedding planning than any other.   I wanted to do something  touching, have them a part of the ceremony, but didn’t want to turn the celebration into a memorial.

We started by having a page each in our wedding bulletins in memory of them.  We included biographical information, a fun story, a photo individually and their wedding photo which my husband and I recreated at the cake cutting.

Embracing Grief at the Holidays

I think most of us can remember a time we loved the holidays.  Santa Claus. Our grandparents giving us huge hugs -- and even bigger gifts.  The smells of the once a year treats from the oven, and laughter of cousins.  I think for many of us somewhere along the way the magic of Christmas has turned into dread or endurance.

My husband and I didn't put up a Christmas tree this year.  It has always been my favorite part of Christmas.  I love looking through the ornaments and remembered so many good times.  The doll my 2nd grade teacher made out of a pack of lifesavers and a styrofoam ball head.  Yes, I have a roll of 34 year old candy in my Christmas decorations.  I loved my teacher, and the fact she made something for me was so special.  (She made one for each of us in our class.)But then there are the other ornaments.  Childhood creations from people who won't speak to me any longer.  Ornaments bought on years the holidays wouldn't be considered "good".  The year a family member threw out all the gifts I gave him.  

Why your Passwords should be in a Safe Place in case of Death

FTC disclaimer:  Many of my posts contain affiliate links.

In February 2014, my mother passed away.  After that, I started preparing things I never would have thought of in the event of my untimely demise.  My mother had been ill for a long time, and was not very computer savvy,  which made things easier in the online world.

Someone logged her out of every one of her accounts AND passworded her computer the night she passed away.  Yes, I know someone else did this and my mother didn't -- it was passworded AFTER my mother was pronounced dead.

First, the password that was put on Windows was able to be taken off by a computer expert.  The cost of this was about $100.  My mother was a writer and had many unpublished works on her hard drive, so the cost was well worth it as I hope to publish them posthumously.  In fact, my mother made me repeatedly promise I would do so.

The Day I left Church in Tears

I'm 41 years old, and I'm getting married for the first time in nineteen days.  I never expected to be this old and just now getting married, but my mother had a lot of health problems and once the time was right and I met my boyfriend, my mother asked him to move here and help take care of her.  I had been taking care of her myself but  it was too much for me to handle at that point without help.  She didn't want to live her final days in a nursing home.  I honored my mother's wishes, and my boyfriend did, too.  Between the two of us, we were able to keep her at home.  To me, it was the right thing to do, and I felt I was doing what God wanted for me as well.  She passed away at home, while I was at a small group from church.

Last Mother's Day was the first without her.   I headed to the first service our church holds, and it being on a Saturday I thought I was "safe".  I remembered how my mother said in her childhood church every woman got a carnation -- one color if your mother was living and another if your mother was deceased.  I thought about how difficult it would be the first year to wear the deceased color.

Nothing was said about Mother's Day all through the service.  But at the end.  Oh, how I wish I had left early.  Our church had about 50 in that service, and the mi
nister called all mothers up to the front.  I was the only adult woman left in the pews.  It was all men and me.  (I don't recall any children being at that service.)  I felt so singled out when every woman but me was called to the front.  Every woman but me received a flower.   It was uncomfortable, but I've dealt with that for years.  It doesn't matter how much you may want a child, at most churches I've been to only those who have children either biologically or adopted are honored.  (I've often wondered how women who have no children with them but have given a child a chance at a better life by releasing them to be adopted feel when all mothers are to stand.)

Mom and me after she was on dialysis for a couple years.

I was the only woman who was not given a flower.  I was the only woman looking on at all the other women while the minister did a mini-sermon about how being a mother and raising a child is God's highest calling.   (Isn't the calling God has on your life His highest calling for you?  And my calling is not what someone else's calling is so why should we say what is God's highest calling?)    My fiance tried to comfort me, but that only made it worse.  I was in absolute tears.  So much so that one of the women brought her flower to me, the childless one.

Isaiah 51:4 says it beautifully:

Rejoice, childless one, who did not give birth; burst into song and shout, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the forsaken one will be more than the children of the married woman," says the LORD."   (NLT)

Yet, it sometimes feels that churches forget this verse.  I have a friend named Leslie who is an amazing children's volunteer in her church.  She's still single.  Do you think the dozens of children she has ministered to would not rise up and call her blessed?  (Proverbs 31) I know I feel that way about the children's and youth workers I have had in my growing up years.  Leslie has children -- just in a different way -- their parents trust her with their child's spiritual education each week.  Mother's Day is just as much about Leslie as it is the woman who gave birth.  Let's begin to recognize that fact, and honor the sacrifices people like Leslie make.  We met at a retreat and she said how much she loved the times of worship because it was so seldom she was able to be in an adult worship service.

Last year after the minister finished his mini-sermon on motherhood being the highest calling in a woman's life, church was dismissed.  I want children.  I spoke to my doctor today about the possibilities and risks of trying to have a child.  I'm 41 and have health problems.  From the sounds of things, it likely won't happen.  We hope to adopt.  But until now God's highest calling for me was taking care of my ailing mother.   I couldn't have cared for her the way she needed if I would have had children.

Ours was the first of four church services over Mother's Day weekend last year.  As I left the church, I mentioned to the minister that he might want to be aware that there are women who want children and can't have them and hearing that motherhood was God's highest calling might not be the best way to honor mothers.  I was met with silence and a blank stare.

As soon as I got to the car, I announced I was never again attending church on Mother's Day as it was too painful.  I went home and went to bed.  My fiance had the next day off work and wanted to see me busy so we did a day of geocaching until we were exhausted.

Let's remember that God calls different people to different things.  Mother's Day can be a difficult day for various reasons.  Infertility, singleness, miscarriage.  I'm not saying to not  honor mothers but I'd love to see churches be mindful of the pain this day can cause, and let's also remember the Leslies in our church, the single women who give so much to the children.

I'm tired of saying my mother died.

I took RCIA this past year, and had every intention of joining the Church afterwards.  As some of you may remember, Feb 18, I had to leave RCIA class because I got the call asking if my mother was a DNR (do not resuscitate), she passed away before RCIA was finished that evening (I left, of course.)  I didn't feel quite confident I was ready emotionally to join the Church (theology was no problem), so I asked my priest if I could join in a few months.  He said that he would need permission from the Bishop, but that yes, I could.  I specifically asked if I had to go through RCIA again  (I completed the class although I didn't join).   I was told that once through RCIA was all I needed.

Now we have another priest.   I was ready to join the church a couple months ago, but he is telling me I have to go through RCIA again.   I'm trying to convince the powers that be the reason I didn't join was based on circumstances and not theology.

I'm so tired of saying "My mother died" or "I was at RCIA class when my mother passed away"

I see the Eucharist at Mass each week.  I can't receive.  This upsets me, and to think it could be Easter before I could receive just seems so far away.

I've been through so much this year, I've had so many losses, and the one thing I'm wanting is to receive the Eucharist.

I am hopeful that something can be done, but I'm also tired of talking about the loss that consumed my mind around Easter Vigil.

Happy Day, Sad emotions

I just wanted to write.  To someone.  To no one.  Blogging is a way of writing publicly, yet sometimes feels as if I write to no one.

Yesterday was hard.  I had another day of thinking about how there will be only two family members of mine at the wedding.  I have eight more months to ponder this.

I'm hoping there will be a lot of friends there.  We are doing an open church wedding.  Right now, eight months away, it looks like we'll have nearly 50 guests, and I'm sure more will confirm closer to the time.  I want to celebrate with those who love me, those who like me somewhat, and those who are coming just to eat fried chicken.  I want to celebrate life.  I want to laugh, enjoy, and smile with those who have stuck by me the last year.

I want those who are there to know that I'm still grieving the loss of my parents.  I'm not sure I'll ever get over that.  But I want something there to remember my parents.  Instead of a bouquet, I'll carry the Bible my mother carried at her wedding.  Aside from her engagement ring (which is now mine) and her wedding rings, that is the only item I have from my parents' wedding.  I may pin Dad's high school class ring inside my dress.

It seems like since my dad is no longer here, I will have to have someone else walk me down the aisle.  The more I think about it, the more it may be two someones.  Why?   Because it feels like if just one man walks me down the aisle, he is a replacement for my dad.  Having two close friends walk me down the aisle seems to say that no ONE can ever replace my dad.  I know it means different things to different people, but it feels that way to me, and all that matters at my wedding is the symbolism I want to give things.   I haven't decided for certain, but both men I have considered asking to walk me down the aisle will be there.

It's amazing to me how such a happy day can also bring up sad emotions.

When the Dash is Too Short

I have heard the saying that all that matters in a cemetery is the dash between the birth and death dates.  Then it is explained that how you live is more important than how long you live.  While there is a grain of truth in that, it was obviously said by someone who wasn't grieving.

Yesterday, I stopped at the cemetery for the first time since Mom died.  I needed to find the way the date was written on the stone so I could get it cut.  The stone is hard to miss.  Mom and Dad sold tombstones until 1986 and before they sold the business, they purchased one for themselves.  It's a bit like Dad -- over the top -- at least in my opinion.  Or it was in 1986. Some of today's stones are a bit fancier.

The dash is too short for both of my parents.   Yesterday morning, I was at a wellness checkup with a new health care provider.  I was asked history, and I realized that both with Mom and Dad, I said they were "only" and then the age when they died.  Mom was only 69.  Dad was only 62.  Only.  Only. Only.  I'm so sick of saying only.

I was listening to K-Love yesterday and hearing stories about how people were healed.   Not all people are healed.  I think it's the exception rather than the rule.  I was listening to this person on K-Love talking about how he was diagnosed with cancer and sent home to die -- and he gave a date that will forever be ingrained in my memory.  The same day the doctor said to me that in 48 hours I would have to make the decision to pull the plug on Mom.  I don't understand why some people are healed and then some aren't.  And some, like my mother, seem to be healed for a time, but then are so sick and go downhill until one day we find her gone -- when nothing seemed amiss that morning except she was in a health decline.

I stopped at the cemetery and saw the words at the top of the stone, "He Hideth My Soul".  That was played during her funeral.  Seeing the freshly dug grave, I was in tears.  My mother was in that cold ground.  I know this is when I "should" be saying that she is walking along the streets of gold or with Jesus, but right then, all I could think was Mom was right there.  And I am alone.  I know, I know, I have my boyfriend, and I love him dearly, but he's not my mother.  I love my "Nancy-in-law" (his step mother), but she's not my mother.  No one is my mother except my mother.  She is irreplacable.

From there, I decided to go out to her home place.  It's five miles out of town.  As I was driving to the church my great-grandfather built, I was wishing someone would be there so I could go inside.  I never remembered being in it, and I felt like it would make me feel a lot closer to Mom.  She had so many stories of the church, including one that was published in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Answered Prayers: 101 Stories of Hope, Miracles, Faith, Divine Intervention, and the Power of Prayer about how my great-grandmother prayed for her son during WWII in that church.  Family legend says that hair stood up on the back of people's heads as they heard my great-grandmother plead for her son's life.  After a few minutes of desperate pleading, she got up from her knees and said her son was okay.  Mom related this story so well, it was published in detail.  I've heard so many stories growing up that I feel like I was there for some of them.  But when I got to the church, it was locked and empty.  I figured as much for a Monday afternoon.

This is the church at Freeport near Terra Alta WV.  It once was the Nordeck Evangelical United Brethren Church, but is currently the Freeport King James Bible Church.  

I spent some time just walking around the church.  Remembering the picnic we had with my grandmother who passed away in 1995.  Remembering how a few times each summer Dad would announce, "Let's go for a drive" and many times we'd end up in Freeport, Mom telling me stories.  I am not sure if the tears were happy or sad -- or both.  The dash was well lived, but too short.  I never knew my mother's father, her beloved uncle, or her grandparents.  I was at "home" but also with strangers I've never met except for my mother and grandmother.

I decided to stop at the beaver dam.  When I was growing up, I loved skipping rocks across what is now swamp land.  I loved looking at the ripples and seeing how they resounded.

The farm she grew up on is now private property, but I have been granted permission by the current owners to visit.  It was the first time in years I had walked up to the house (which is now abandoned.)  I always loved the milkhouse, it always seemed like a clubhouse type building to me as a child.  Unfortunately it's beginning to fall in.  The barn is still standing, and the house collapsed years ago.  I walked around the foundations thinking of the generations of my family who lived there (my great-great-grandfather built that house!)  I saw a washtub in the rubble of the house and wondered how many hours my grandmother stood by that doing chores and belting out "Amazing Grace"  (She wasn't the most talented singer, but she made up for it in volume!) 

I sighed as I left and looked out at what my mother would have seen every time she looked off the front porch.  It's no wonder she always missed it.  The view, which I had never really noticed before, is beautiful.  Mom used to joke my grandfather said about the song "Lord Build Me A Cabin", he would state, "Why a cabin in the corner of Gloryland?  I want a mansion in the middle."  But I'm hoping they don't have a cabin -- instead I hope they have a two story farmhouse with a view like they did on earth.  It's beautiful.

There were some raindrops starting to fall as I left.  It felt so fitting.  

As I started back to town, I was still crying.  I felt like I reconnected with my past, with people who love me -- some I've never met.  As I rounded the corner to the church, there was a lady on the porch wiping down a stand, and the door was open.  I stopped, introduced myself and got a tour of the church.  Our church.  The Nordeck Church.   Only it's not ours anymore.  But part of us will always be there.   

Easter: The Story of Death (and of Life)

 This is my contribution to the Convergent books Synchroblog.
Easter. Resurrection? Right?  Happy memories of children hunting eggs, jelly beans, and a large family dinner.  Not always.  Did you ever stop to think that Easter is another day?  People are born (like my friend Dan from college was born on Easter Sunday.)  People also die.

April 16, 1995 was a beautiful warm day in West Virginia.  A friend of mine was offered extra credit in a college class to attend church, bringing a church bulletin in with him the next morning.  So finally, he offered to attend church with me.   My mother was working at the local nursing home, and he was also scheduled to work soon after church, so I fixed lunch for us.  As soon as he got to work, he knew something was wrong when Mom wasn't at her station, and he went running to my grandmother's room.   He declared, "I should have brought Jennifer with me."  Because it was shift change, I was called, told I would be picked up by someone I never met and I was, on the day we celebrate the Resurrection, I was going to be present at my grandmother's death.

It was the hardest thing I'd ever done up to that point in my life, which at twenty-two, wasn't that long of a life.  To be so joyful at a worship service that morning and then watch as life waned from my grandmother, her eyes studying me, knowing she wouldn't see me for a very long time.  Easter now has become synonymous to me with a last breath, making arrangements at the funeral home, and the feeling of emptiness that Mary, Mary Magdalene and the disciples felt on Good Friday.  Did you realize that Mary and Mary Magdalene did their first century equivalent of making funeral arrangements?   They were headed to the tomb, not understanding what happened.  They only knew the One whom they loved died a gruesome death reserved for the very dregs of society.  Their Son, their Friend.  Gone.  I'm sure if they even remembered the words of Jesus from John 10:17, they didn't grasp them.  (This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.)  Or the words from John 16:22 (So you also are now in anguish.  But I will see you again, and your hearts with rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.)

My mother, every year on Easter and on April 16 mourned the loss of my grandmother.  Mom always said it was like two anniversaries of death and told me "You never get over the loss of your mother."  I thought she was exaggerating because wouldn't you learn to live without someone?

February 18, 2014, my boyfriend dropped me off at RCIA.  I made the decision last year to become Catholic and needed to be at the class.  We had been running errands in a town an hour away, spending much of the afternoon in the DMV.  He was going to check on Mom, then return for the rest of class.  When the phone rang, my first thought was, "Why is he calling?   He knows I'm in class."  I stepped out of the room, and heard, "I had to call 911.  She's unresponsive."  When I returned to the class, I was asked if I needed to go.  I explained I had no car.  Soon a second phone call.   A paramedic questioning me about her medical conditions.  My boyfriend on the phone telling me I needed to get home.  As I gathered my things, and grabbed a friend out of the class to give me a ride 10 miles up the mountain, I heard the lesson.  The Eucharist.   "This do in remembrance of me."  It's how we, as Christians, remember the death of Jesus.

The next time I heard my priest's voice, he was standing by my mother who had passed away.  Because my mother was not Catholic, he could not do Last Rites, but did a prayer of committal of her spirit to God.  The Scriptures were comforting, at least as comforting as they could be at the moment when my mother was gone.  I had fully expected to see her later that evening.  Sobs racked my body, though.  My boyfriend on one side of me, the friend who brought me home from church on the other.

It is two months today since Mom died.  It's hard.  I had to have follow ups to a mammogram because something suspicious was found.  I wanted her there so badly.  (Thankfully all was clear.) I have waited for marriage until I found the right man.  Mom met him, but she said last summer that she had two last things she was living for, one was to publish a book she wrote, and the second was to see me married.  My heart aches at the thought of a wedding now that neither of my parents are alive.

When my dad passed away, I had recently taken a trip to Israel with a friend who was Episcopalian and her Jewish boyfriend.  He stepped up and did the best he could of sitting Shiva with me -- every evening he phoned me.  It was comforting to know that someone acknowledged my grief beyond the time my dad's body was placed in the ground.

I learned more about Jewish mourning rituals at that time.  There's a tradition called avelut where, if your parent has died, you should avoid celebrations, parties, and the like for a year.  My boyfriend's step-mother called recently wanting us to visit on Easter, or for them to visit.  We live five hours away and rarely see each other.  I don't feel ready for a celebration.  I'm not entering the Catholic Church at Easter as I planned but giving myself more time. (I will elaborate on this in an upcoming blog post).   My heart is still shattered.  Although Christians don't follow Jewish mourning rituals, I feel justified in knowing the celebration I looked forward to may not be appropriate for me just yet.

Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life, but right now, I'm still living in Good Friday.  I'm feeling what the disciples felt after losing Him.   I'm sure someday I'll have more of an understanding of Resurrection, Eternal Life, and Heaven, but right now, I'm feeling grief.  Because of my Grandmother, even Easter Sunday has grief woven through it, but maybe, just maybe that's how it should be.  What if we didn't just celebrate the Resurrection on Easter, but remember how death hurts, leaves an ache that won't go away -- unless we see the Person again.

The Dartboard of Grief and Suffering

I read this concept online at one point in time.  I don't remember where it's from.  It's so accurate I thought it was worth making a post about it.  If anyone remembers the source, please let me know.

The concept is that the person suffering is the center.  They can complain to anyone outside their circle of the bullseye.  The next circle are those closest to that person.  They can complain to everyone but the person in the center circle.  It gets larger as the social network of people increase.  For instance, someone in their church should not complain to an immediate family member that the suffering of the person in the center is so much they can't stand it.  That person can complain to those outside their circle, but no one closer to the suffering.

photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

I used this idea when my mother was in the hospital in August.  I was terrified.  I felt justified in anyone I let know how scared I was, etc.  I never breathed a word to my mother how terrified I was because of her health.  I was positive and upbeat around her.  It sounds like common sense, but it is not.   Because other people complained to her about her suffering and how it bothered them, she thought I didn't care.  

The night my mother died, there were various "circles" of the bullseye in our living room.  The paramedics comforted me through tears.  I saw their own pain of losing a friend and co-worker.  I have no doubt they cried once they left the house, but were strong for me.

When I arrived home (I was at church), a friend drove me home.  He never met my mother, and he was a rock for everyone.  My boyfriend wanted to protect me from what happened.  There were others there to comfort my boyfriend, but I was in a circle closer to my mother than my boyfriend, although he was in a ring just outside me.  In the last few months my mother became close with my boyfriend.

I am not saying you need to treat the suffering and grieving with kid gloves, but please do remember the circles.  Be strong for those in the inner circles.  Be someone they can turn to instead of you turning to them in your pain and grief.

Everyone handles grief and suffering differently.  Just because someone appears stoic and like it doesn't bother them, that doesn't mean they aren't silently shedding tears when no one is around.  It doesn't mean there isn't pure panic at times in the middle of the night.  Just because they appear to be doing okay, don't assume that is really the case.

Ask what you can do.  Be willing to help.  Maybe even offer to do things.  Someone called the day after my mother died and offered to clean our house.  I didn't get the message until later, but many times offering something you can do is more appreciated than you can imagine. 

Seven things I've learned about Grief (thus far)

1.   On February 18, 2014, my life as I knew it ended.  No, I won't get over it.  Life will never go back to "normal".  I'm finding a new normal and trying to live in that.

2.  The last hours of my mother's life play over and over again in my mind.  She took a nap.  But what ifs run though my head.  I wish I knew details, and the few details I do know, I wish I didn't.

3.  Meat and Cheese trays.   Enough said.

4.  Grief is beginning to look like a sandwich.  (See #3.)

5.  Writing thank yous feels like an excruciating chore. (See #3)  I'm asking my boyfriend to do as many of those as possible.  

6.  Everyone grieves differently.  Don't judge.

Image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

7.  Weird emotions at weird times.  The poor home health lady who called to check up on Mom and I found it so funny and started laughing.  The absolute terror I felt one night as I got up to go to the bathroom.

Bonus:

8.  The people you expected to be there for you might not be, and the people who are there for you mean more than you can ever express.

You can find more 7 Quick Takes Friday at http://www.conversiondiary.com/

Goodbye, Mom

I'll be back to blogging soon, but my mother passed away on Tuesday.  While she had been very ill for some time, it was sudden in the fact it wasn't expected to happen that day.  My boyfriend talked to her an hour before she passed.

Obviously I have things more important to tend to at the moment than blogging.