When someone dies unexpectedly, you become ridiculously aware that at the end of your life… all we are is a collection of things, memories… and if we’re lucky… we are a legacy worth remembering. Mom was all of these, but most of all… she left behind ALOT of things. There is real grief to be […]
The night of October 10th, I had a group of friends that had cleaned mom’s apartment all day. They had gone through each piece of mail with care, packed tons of photographic proof of our amazing adolescence in boxes, and stopped to let me smoke a cigarette… which I totally forgot how to do. I […]
As I waited for Matt to get back with the kids. I was very thankful for the wise counsel that we had accumulated over the last month. Everyone processes grief differently. They also introduce grief to children differently too. We were not asking questions to imitate the responses… We were gathering stories and from them, […]
Time of Death: October 4, 2018. 12:59P The world is usually a loud and interfering opponent. On October 4, 2018, I awoke to a world filled with deafening silence. I had stayed the night with my mom, and as my eyes opened when my alarm went off, her breathing had not changed. It was not […]
October 2, 2018 was the hardest day of our journey. October 3, 2018 was the most humbling. When my mom was transported from East Texas to my home in North Texas, I was functioning at a pretty high level. When she was at the nursing and rehab center, I realized that it was fall. My […]
One year ago today, was the last day I would ever see my mom awake. After her last respiratory crash, her kidneys were failing, and she was fighting an infection on top of aspiration pneumonia. Her medical team consisted of an Internal Medicine Physician, Neurologist, Infectious Disease, and Pulmonologist. The damage her body was experiencing […]
This is a building that has been standing in Timpson, TX since before I was born. For 30 days, my life consisted of traveling back and forth between my childhood and my adulthood. I am moved every time I think about Timpson. I grew up knowing everyone. My mom and I may have had a […]
When the day was upon us, it was time to hug my husband good-bye so he could go back to work and comfort our kiddos. I did the usual routine; spoke to the charge nurse about therapy, then the doctor about any changes in tests they have run since I was last on site, and […]
After the first late night phone call letting us know my mom may not wake up… we were quite amazed that her eyes were open within the next 24 hours. Over a total of 36 hours away from her strokes, she was able to move her legs. How we both took that success for granted. […]
We were fortunate to have space between knowing the time was coming and the time itself. Most people do not get that time and I am truly thankful we had it. With my daddy, I alienated myself from everyone. With him, I flipped my humanity switch off and went on a journey of self destruction […]
It All Counts 