Wondering about my Wanderings

Silent Night

I am back to share the difference between departure and arrival. Mom has departed and now we as a family are faced with what will that means for each of us. The metaphor sticks because I just got off the plane. I have arrived from Massachusetts and was reminded of how my mother departed to another venue we are faced with what will happen for anyone else who longs for a departure to heavenly lands.

The greatest joy is to consider she is in a better place. The younger generation wants to know why it is not with us. There is talk of Halloween and apple picking not being the same as when Nana was alive. The kids are getting downright violent. How could this happen and how can adults be so aloof in attending to the younger set. Grandma is gone and adults try to gloss over the fact by placing her in heaven. How can a younger set survive without her. She was their hero.

It was interesting to see how the story unraveled. Mom had been putting together a picture book of hope on Thursday and settled in on a gravestone picture of her grandma and grandpa. Mom hated that kind of stuff normally. My sister Kim said she was not ready. Mom told her that she was. On Saturday she was taken to the ER. They even entertained the idea of sending her home after they got her Oxygen was stabilized. Mom said no. It was her birthday, but she was determined to stay in the hospital, a place that she hated.

She was dead no more than twenty one hours later. She was in convulsions as she prepared to breathe her last breath. My sister and a church person sang Christian songs snuggled up to her. The last song that they sang was Silent Night. She breathed her last breath when they finished the last verse, sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace. Departure and arrival are interesting metaphors. We come and go, often enough where we least expect. Mom departed and arrived at the same time. She won a place in the heart of all that knew her, she departed to a better place. She will be missed.