My grandmoether passed away shortly after Christmas back in 1999. My mom still has a really tough time even though we all knew she was going soon, she was 87 and had been a picture of health up until the last 1-1/2 years. She was living with my Mom at the time and eventually had to check her into the Hopsital on Christmas Eve. She was tansferred to a hospice facility on January 6th and died 6 hours later, surrounded by her 7 Adult Children. Being one of the bigger of all the cousins, I was one of the pall bearers at her funeral and I still consider it to be one of the great honors of my life to help Bring Her Home to God at the church that day.
Although it was not a Christmas Time, I lost my dad 7 days before Father's Day in 2001. That Father's Day kind of sucked and I really have a hard time each Father's Day now. I was blessed enough to have an impromtu lunch date with my dad the Friday before he passed and I'll never forget it. He gave me some advise that I didn't think I'd ever hear from him, He said, "Let's go next door and you can buy your wife some Roses." I look at him kind of funny and said she really doesn't like Roses all that much. He replied," B.S. she just says that because she loves you and knows how allergic you are to them, buy her one to let her know how special she is to you." It was probably the first time in my life my dad had ever shown me his "tender" side.
Thank you for reminding me about both of them - I miss them so much it's hard to type right now.
God Bless and Merry Christmas
