Loss

It has been a hard two weeks.

I had my darling Grandfather pass away in Ontario last week. He had dimentia and failing health but it doesn't make it any less hard. I think one of the hardest things was seeing my stepmom in pain. It was her father, and she had to go out on a red eye flight in order to get there before he passed. It's been a long time since we've had a death in the family and it really has been thinking out what it means to die. I'm a Christian and so I have reassurance about where I'm going, so death is kind of a "it happens" thing in my mind. I know that Grandfather is in a place now where he feels no pain and gets to see his wonderful wife Pat who has been gone for a few years. I like to imagine his face when he sees her again.

Now I just want to remember him as he was. He had this hilarious Irish ballad that he liked to sing about a man marrying a woman and on their wedding night she takes her wig off and pulls out her teeth, and all sorts of horrible things until he realizes she's not the teenager he thought he married. Even in his dimentia he could sing this song or recite these hilarious poems that he had memorized so many years before. The last time I saw him was a year and a half ago and he told us stories as he enjoyed his Black Forest cake in the nursing home. He later showed us his medals and reminded us all that he was a lifetime member of the legion. He was an amazing man and he will be missed.

On top of all this we had to say goodbye to our darling family cat Mischief. We had her in our lives for 16 years. Now some say this is old for a cat, but it felt like she would live forever. Turns out God had a different plan. She passed away purring as my Dad and Tracey patted her on a veterinarians table. It's a particularly hard blow when I think that we got her a month or so before my brother was born, and she's the last cat we had where me and my siblings were all living under the same room. In that it seems like a chapter has closed. She was so beautiful and gave you the most painful sandpaper tongue baths a cat could give.

Despite all this I am grateful for the time that God gave me with them. Everyone that you meet and love adds something to your life. These two contributed to who I am today and I will be eternally grateful for that. I rest in Christ that they are happy now and with Him.