The hotel room we are in faces the garden center connected to a grocery store. The sky just opened up, and the clouds released the rain, creating rivers in the parking lot.
This angry little storm released a fury of wind along with the rain. Tornado sirens blared the warning of a touchdown just south of us.
Our middle daughter and her family arrived at the hotel last night and decided to take a drive to Chicago today. Poor kids are soaked!
Our oldest daughter and her family are on the road and will arrive tomorrow night.
Our youngest daughter is flying out alone and hopes her flight will arrive tonight. It will depend on whether these storms pass or not.
My husband’s brother’s funeral is Wednesday. We all hope the storms pass by then. From what we hear, it should be 80 degrees and sunny. Fingers crossed.
Today is Monday. Last Monday evening, my husband and I arrived home after spending two weeks saying our final goodbyes to his brother and three days on the road. Apparently, we left his brother too soon.
We received the call Wednesday morning that his brother was in the active stage of dying. We reloaded the suitcases, packing up the dirty clothes we hadn’t had time to wash, I explained the situation to my supervisor, and we were back on the road again.
Wednesday evening, just as we pulled onto the hotel parking lot, my husband’s niece called again. The Glioblastoma had stolen her dad’s final breath. He was gone.
It took us until Saturday evening to finish the drive. Last evening, we sat together with two of our nieces and a nephew and all of their families where we enjoyed a barbecue and shared lots of memories of their dad, their childhood, and how much they are going to miss him.
My husband has made peace with it. This is the third of four brothers he has lost, as well as his parents. This brother was 71. He lived more years than his dad (67) and his other two brothers (43 and 58). His mom was 73 when she died.
It seems like a small thing, but I am going to miss his phone calls on my birthday and his calls to give me a hard time when his football team would beat mine. He is a great example of how important the small things are.
Connection matters. Make the calls, visit family, write the notes, send text messages, blog your thoughts, and record your memories. Connection and memories are what you leave behind when you are gone.
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