My mother in law had been watching our sweet Savannah since she was born and lived with us so we would have mutual help with life as well as our expenses. She was an amazing woman and became one of my best friends and a surrogate mother since mine had passed.
A year had nearly passed when my wife, Boo and myself decided to take my mother in law with us to our yearly trip to Disney World. We all felt like it was needed - I had recently lost my mother, my wife had work issues that were so morbidly awful I won't go into them, and my mother in law and never been.
Disney World is my way of decompressing. It truly seems like the only place I can go and all of my cares seem to melt away. Not surprisingly, my mother in law had a blast and was able to do so many things that she never thought she would ever be able to. The trip was fantastic and I'm glad that I was able to share with her my favorite place in the world.
A few months later on a sunny summer day, my mother in law began feeling ill while filling up Savannah's little swimming pool. She went to rest as this wasn't something too entirely strange as she was prone to suddenly feeling bad, but we all thought nothing of it.
Again, my recollection of time frames is very poor, but either later that night or the next day Boo I was awakened by my wife needing to get her mom to the car. She was going to go to the hospital to see why she wasn't feeling right. Knowing how strong her mother was, I knew this had to be serious. While waiting for Boo to get the rolling chair (I think thats what she was doing - it was a hectic moment in time), her mother - with obvious fear on her face looked me in the eye. "Take care of Barbara."
Tears started streaming down her face and I'll never forget that moment. I reassured her that everything would be fine, but I would. Shortly thereafter Boo arrived with the chair and we took her to the car, physically put her in it and she drove off. I would never see my mother in law again.
Within a year's time I lost two mothers and I took it hard. It was even more difficult in that I wasn't sure if my level of mourning was appropriate. I learned not to care. She was my friend and forget you if you think I shouldn't grieve.
Again, we had to take out loans to pay for the final expenses. This time it was a loan that we really couldn't afford, but what else were we to do?
Boo leaned on me for support and I was here for her and vice versa.
Savannah misses her maw maw, of course. She will see her picture from time to time and tell us how she loves her even to this day. She made me bawl when she saw her picture the other day and asked me where she was. "She's an angel now, hon."
"She's an angel?"
"Yes. She will always be here with us."
"OK."
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