Overwhelmed...

I'm sitting here ready to type, and I don't even know where to start.  I can't believe it's only been about 10 days since I sat here typing out a goodbye to my Mother-in-law.  So much has happened I hardly know where to begin.

We were barely home from our trip to NY to say goodbye, and had just put my son on the plane to Puerto Rico (he was going there on a missions trip) when we got the call that she had passed away.  She literally passed as my son's plane was taking off.  She would have wanted him to go, so I'm choosing to believe that was her way of saying she approved.  We left the next day to attend her funeral.

Funerals and weddings are strange events.  You see people you rarely see, tell family stories, laugh and cry.  You promise not to let so much time go by, then hug, hug, and hug again.  You take lots of pictures, then look later and wonder how they got so old, how YOU got so old...then you go back to your lives, and they go back to theirs, and you don't see them again until the next family event.  That's the trouble with living so far away from them.  It's sad that my son doesn't know his Uncles, Aunts and cousins.  But then...I didn't know mine either very well.

Sorry this sounds so sad, the whole event kind of left me feeling disconnected, and I've had a hard time sorting out my feelings.  As someone commented, we did say goodbye to June twice.  Once when she no longer remembered us, and then again when we laid her to rest. I like to think she's finally reunited with the love of her life, she missed him terribly after he was gone, and that she's at peace.

Afterward people came with boxes of pictures and momentoes that no one wanted.  Family Bibles, pictures, crucifixes, things I remembered them having at their house, cherished items.  How sad that they were carelessly tossed in a box and that no one wanted them.  So, we brought them home.  I'm learning things I never knew about their lives.  But it makes me wonder what people will do with all my momentoes, the cross stitch creations I poured my heart and soul into.  Maybe all my labors are for naught?  What a crazy world we live in...

Here are a few pictures taken in NY.  Some of the pictures captured the sadness, and some the silliness as some tried to lighten the mood.  Family...

I really do hope we see you again soon!