Hi Friends! I have been giving a lot of thought to loss. In fact, I have been living within the painful cycle of grief since my father passed away on January 30, 2021. I’ve been wondering, how can I remember him without being sad all the time? And, believe me, I am okay with being […]
Category Archives: Aging Parents
This Good Cry. I’ll Cry When . . .
My friends, since the death of my father my heart is both full to capacity from all the love I am receiving and broken beyond repair from the loss of my dad. I haven’t had a good cry since the day he died and the further time moves from that moment, the further his memory […]
These Days Since My Father’s Death
These days since my father’s death I’ve been moving through life at my usual pace. Seeing me from the outside doesn’t look much different than before, but my insides feel crumpled. It’s as if my insides were a sheet of paper crumpled up into a small ball that has been laid flat on the table […]
A Man Like My Father
My friends, I am starting to see hope and feel gratitude after my father’s death. See, I have made many mistakes in my life, however, choosing to spend the rest of my life with the man I call my husband is not one of them. As time moves over the wound of losing my father, […]
The Day My Children Said Goodbye To Their Grandfather
My friends, it was a cold and windy morning on the 29th of January when my children said goodbye to their Poppy. It had only been 4 short months since he sat at their soccer games cheering from the sidelines. 5 months since he sat in church watching his grandson receive the sacrament of eucharist. […]
Now That You Are Gone
It has been almost three whole days since you died. Looking back at the five days you spent home on hospice, replaying each moment, I have come to understand some important things about those days. First, time felt suspended. I have never felt something so surreal. I was looking at my watch often waiting for […]
Little Eyes Are Watching Me Through This Incredibly Painful Time
Life is but a combination of fleeting moments strung together to create hours, days, years, and decades. As I sit next to my dying father, I am running through the combination of fleeting moments from our life together. I remember less of what he said to me and more of how he made me feel. […]
Find Joy in the Journey
My friends, if you are like me, certain inspirational sayings crawl right up your back when you’re not in the right state of mind to hear them. Words can lose their meaning when I’m not in the right place to receive them, and yet, it doesn’t make their meaning any less true. I am my […]
How to Separate Helpless from Worthless, a Work in Progress
My friends, I stopped doing my house work. The dishes from New Years Eve sat in the sink until January 5th. I walked over the same small plastic straw wrapper umpteen times without any regard. I devised a special laundry system that involved leaving all clean laundry in baskets . . . unfolded. When I […]
One Mother’s Post: How to Survive Christmas with a Hospitalized Father
Oh my friends, to suggest that I could teach you how to survive anything is incredibly presumptuous as to any sort of qualifications I have as a person. What the title should read is, I survived Christmas with a hospitalized father. Kind of . . . The aftermath of yesterday laid strewn all over the […]