Memorial Service

The memorial service as well as the family weekend was a wonderful tribute to Mom.  The family all got in on Friday 7/26.  We convened at my daughter’s place where she put out wine and snacks, etc.  Later, some of us went to dinner together.  Then on Saturday morning we met at the cemetery chapel and had the service.  It was so perfect.  After that we had a wonderful lunch at Wildfire (my other daughter works there so we got a reduction in price but it was still pretty expensive).  On Saturday night most of us took a Wendella boat ride – sunset cruise – so that the out of towners could see Chicago better.  It was intensely cold but, so what.

On Sunday morning we took my Mom’s aid and her daughter for Chicago hotdogs before driving them to the airport.

Our 29th anniversary was the following Monday, the 29th.  We didn’t do much. Went to Olive Garden for lunch and hung around the book store, but we both really enjoy that and I was still sort of melancholy from the week end.

I get such painful pangs of missing Mom that it astounds me.  I was (I thought) so prepared and, actually when she seemed to not be in a healthy mind and her body seemed so frail, I sometimes wished it would just end.  Even still, when I wished it would end… it would always be tomorrow… not just yet, but tomorrow.

I don’t just miss the her that was there before she died.  I really miss the her that was with me throughout my life.  I miss her humor, her wit, her vivaciousness.  Those things were gone before she was, but I miss them now and I missed them as she aged.  At least, however, I still had her hugs and her loving eyes and her infectious smiles. 

Ugh, how can somebody as old as me miss their mom!  I’m not exactly an orphan, although I am… but one always thinks of orphans as little skinny children cowering in the darkness of the cold unfriendly streets.  I am an old overweight orphan with a huge loving family.