wingsCathiethings

[wingscathie]

Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself. - Eleanor Roosevelt

[wingscathie]

The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar, and familiar things new. - Samuel Johnson

[wingscathie]

Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you. - Anne Lamott

[wingscathie]

The world is in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage evil than from those who actually commit it. - Albert Einstein

[wingscathie]

In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on. - Robert Frost

[wingscathie]

The Lord prefers common-looking people. That is the reason He makes so many of them. - Abraham Lincoln

[wingscathie]

Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience. - George Washington

[wingscathie]

AfterEffects

Besides the deep grief and pain of loss, there’s a lot that has to happen after a loved one dies. It’s just plain rude that the world continues on as if everything is normal, when your entire life has been turned upside down. There are always the well-meaning who spout platitudes regarding your agony, although truthfully, I have been spared much of that; my friends and my church have been…

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[wingscathie]

The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. - Amelia Earhart

[wingscathie]

The Farewell

The next few days were, of course, a blur. I couldn’t believe the funeral home called me that night, but there was nothing for which to wait. Our son and I went in the next morning, Sunday, and made some arrangements: the obituary, the newspaper notices, the day for the services. So much texting, trying to accommodate various needs and wants. Hector had told people he just wanted to be cremated,…

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[wingscathie]

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. - Martin Luther King

[wingscathie]

Second Update

I am glad I was there when he passed. They let us have his family and close friends come into his room. If you’ve read my other posts, you know what a hard time it was for me to get in to see him by myself. And then I had to ‘suit up,’ with gown, gloves, double mask, and more gloves. If I had wanted I could have used a hair covering as well (I didn’t). And that was after three weeks of his…

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[wingscathie]

A thing long expected takes the form of the unexpected when at last it comes. - Mark Twain

[wingscathie]

First Update

I stopped writing because I was spending so much time and effort into texting, trying to keep family and prayer warriors updated. I stopped writing because it was getting so intense: the crisis leading to the tubes in his chest, the next crisis leading to the heavy push to “pull the plug” for him. I stopped writing because I was exhausted, and ashamed to be so weak. Mentally, emotionally,…

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[wingscathie]

We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves. - Francois

[wingscathie]

The highest proof of virtue is to possess boundless power without abusing it. - Lord Macaulay

[wingscathie]

The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone. - Harriet Beecher Stowe