February 10th is the day I lost my Mother, for my Dad his wife of 40 years, for my brothers and sisters their beloved mother, for my nieces and nephews their "Nanny."
We have her in our memories, we lived with her, loved her, laughed with her, cried with her, received her wisdom and enjoyed her playfulness. There are eight grandchildren and two sons-in-law though, who never knew her. Fortunately they didn't go through the sorrow of losing her back then, but sadly they have lost more not living amongst her.
We all thought how could we possibly live without her? How can we make it? With God's loving hand we have made it and we have been happy. Our faith allowed us to understand and pray that she arrived safely to a place we are still journeying to. My Dad has honored and respected her and loved us during this time. God left us Dad to carry us through.
Today we celebrated, hoping that 16 years ago was her happiest day. We went to Mass, a filling brunch, gathered some flowers, went to the cemetary where we let the kids drive, and went to Superior Dairy (hands down the best ice cream anywhere), and enjoyed being together. I can still picture her smile and hear her laugh. She is love to me, and sorrow, and pain too but I thank God for all that is her.
(Happy I was less frustrated working with Photoshop Elements this time. Found this fitting quote today on Rebecca Sower's site.)
2 comments:
What a beautiful tribute. I wish we would have been able to celebrate with you. It would have been a good experience for my children to go to the cemetery and pay respects to their grandparents as we did when we were kids. It is so hard to believe that it has been sixteen years. At the time it seemed like we would never have been able to make it this long without her. We are so lucky that she was our mother and that she taught us the Faith that has sustained us.
It is such a sweet, deep sorrow to have a mother in heaven. A pain that is never ever relieved, a joy that is so looked forward to. Thankful for a Faith that hopefully will bring two together again someday.
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