After 3 challenging weeks we said goodbye to my father-in-law yesterday. A day that I think he would have approved of. A day that I hope I will remember forever. A simple mass was said and lunch to follow in the church reception hall. What was created with simple foods and sandwiches was a place where you could run into people that you haven’t seen in years. A place to reconnect. A place where you can fill up your soul and create lasting memories. A place where you say oh, this is family. These are friends. I am safe here and we are all loved. This is the legacy my father-in-law left for me. The gift he gave us all.
Florida came in at 1:45 am on Friday morning. Just in time to get a few hours sleep before we had to all meet up at the church. She was scheduled to leave at 6:20 pm to head back to Florida on Friday evening. We thought we would have about 1 hour to ourselves so both our daughters and the 2 grand boys were here to hang out. A lovely afternoon, time to spend on the deck with a beer and idle chit chat. No need for serious conversations. The day no longer required that.
As time for leaving approached, Florida checked her flight only to discover the flight had been cancelled. Colorful language ensued and a new flight was booked for 5:50 this morning. What a gift. A few more hours to spend, a few more hours to share. No place we had to be, no expectations, nothing but simple uncomplicated conversation and time to spend with each other. Our nucleus family plus the grand boys.
The only monkey wrench in this whole ideal evening was dinner. None of us wanted to spoil the magic by having to go somewhere and we didn’t really want take out. Given the circumstances of the last 3 weeks we hadn’t really been to the grocery store in over a month so the cupboards were quite bare. Hmm, scouring the freezer I came up with some hamburger, deer hamburger, cheese, hamburger buns, a jar of B&M baked beans, and some frozen broccoli. A quick run to the grocery store for charcoal and we had the makings for an everything but the kitchen sink meal.
The deck isn’t really company worthy quite yet. It still needs a good cleaning but it didn’t matter. The mirrors hadn’t been hung above the marble serving shelf yet and the marble was filthy. No fancy table setting or picture worthy moments. What there was, was us. Just us, basic and simple with no pretensions. Crazy conversation and stupid thoughts that only a fellow family member who grew up in the same house can appreciate. We had lots of laughs & a few happy tears.
When the lights were ready to be turned off and we all said our last goodbye’s we knew, know matter how many miles separate us and our differences in politics we were still united and always still family.
As the husband and I were making our way back home at 4:30 am after dropping Florida at the airport we both were thankful and so filled up. We agreed yesterday was a good day. A perfect day. One we will remember for the rest of our lives. One that could have only been created by the loss of one so dear.
Thanks for stopping
Shelley
