The Beginning of the End, or Starting to Say Goodbye
Let’s be clear. I am an easy crier. I have cried over tv commercials (remember that Tele-Flora one with what’s-his-name from Little House on the Prairie {the football guy – and I don’t mean OJ} – it got me EVERY.SINGLE.TIME he sent flowers to his mom). I have cried over too many tv/movie characters lost loves and deaths. The Hubby has been worn into the ground and now pretty much knows to just let me cry and I’ll stop much sooner that way.
But I have been spontaneously bursting into tears since Wednesday, usually when I am doing dishes and my mind wanders. (Maybe I should stop doing dishes.) That is the day my Aunt J. passed away. Today was the wake – the start of really saying goodbye to her. I actually did fairly well – only going through 5 or 6 tissues in 2.5 hours. Tomorrow – well, I guess time will tell if I can hold it together as well.
It’s not particularly recent, but it’s one of my favorite pictures of my aunt. Even though you can’t see her great smile, I know it is there. And I know she is smiling down at us, at peace and keeping us in her heart, just as we will always keep her in ours.