Wake Me When September Ends.
A few posts from my FB this last week. It’s so weird to think it’s been two years since Mom passed, yet a part of me thinks she’s in that house down the street still, surrounded by her stack of used books, sitting on the sofa with Winston. It’s too surreal to think they’re not there. Also, I still think Grandma & Grandpa are out at the farm, playing gin rummy for nickels and making sandwiches for their grandkids, gum in the bottom kitchen drawer and Pepsi in the fridge. Dad said they’ve got an offer on the farm and they’re gonna accept it. He managed to buy a small portion to go hunting on, but the rest is being sold, including the house. I’m glad, in that it won’t be sitting empty, dark & alone anymore...but sad too, because it will no longer be The Weston farm. Until Sis & I bought this little house together, the farm was the one place I thought of as Home, far far more than my childhood home. So September has been a strange month of letting go.
“Since mom’s birthday was this last week, and the two year anniversary of her passing is this coming up week, Jessie & I decided to go out to the cemetery on Saturday. We finally took the rocks that we painted along with all of Mom’s grandchildren out to her grave - only took 2 years, lol. We set them all around her little headstone and took some pictures. And then we stared at them for a minute, before realizing that we couldn’t bear to leave them there. The cemetery tender will be taking everything away once the weather turns colder and we couldn’t bear the thought that they’d just get thrown out. So Jessie has decided she’s going to buy a birdbath and put it up in the yard, to put all of the rocks inside for the birds to drink out of alongside of these rocks painted in memory of Mom. It seems fitting considering how much Mom cared for the birds. And it’ll be a nice memorial in her honor. So after all that, we packed the rocks back up and brought them home. But here are the pictures we took before we did so! Shout to *The Nephew*, for talking his ridiculously inept aunties through finding their own mother’s grave on the phone - not the first time he has had to save us from wandering aimlessly around the cemetery like lost puppies. Love you, Mom!”
“September 21, 2017 was the day my mother passed away. September 21, 2019 was the day my friend Todd passed away. Which feels significant somehow, since my mom was friends with Todd as well, worked with Todd, and introduce me to Todd. He would complain at work sometimes about wanting to go see some nerdy movie and not being able to find a friend that was willing to go see it with him. Then Mom would come home from work and I would be complaining about the exact same thing, about the exact same movie. So one day she just decided that we were both ridiculous and gave Todd my phone number. After that we went to a bunch of movies together - I remember the first one we saw together was Ocean’s Eleven, he hadn’t seen it yet and I wanted desperately to see it for a second time. I remember him coming over to the house one day to watch the extended edition of the Fellowship of the Ring with me and my cousin - and of course both of them being boys, they loved all the same moments, laughed at all the same parts, recited the same quotes to each other over and over and laughed hysterically. Todd was always trying to get me to come over to his house to watch him feed his snakes, because he knew I had reoccurring nightmares about snakes. and every time he would ask me if I wanted to come over and feed mice to his snakes, I’d freak out so bad, and he would laugh and laugh and think it was hysterical. He had the best laugh. I remember when I got my first computer and I had no idea how to set it up or what the hell I was doing, and Todd came over and spent two hours hooking up all the wires and setting everything up for me, including my monitor. And then showing me how to access a bunch of stuff on my computer because I’d never been on the Internet before - if that tells you how long ago it was. We lost touch after a while, life just started taking over. But I was so happy these last few years to reconnect with him on Facebook. Todd had problems with his heart. He was on the waiting list for a heart transplant. This past week some other health issues arose and sadly he did not make it.
So please,for people like Todd, make sure if you are medically able to donate your organs, that you have checked the box on the back of your drivers license. *And* spoken to your family about your wishes. Because even if you have checked the box on your drivers license, your family can override your wishes once you’re gone. Please make sure they know that you want to donate organs. For someone like me, who will probably need a liver someday. And for someone like Todd, who needed a heart - even though as far as I’m concerned, he had such a big warm amazing heart. Rest In Peace, Todd. I will see you in Valinor.”
If you read all of that, thank you.
This entry was originally posted at https://dodger-sister.dreamwidth.org/253977.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
“Since mom’s birthday was this last week, and the two year anniversary of her passing is this coming up week, Jessie & I decided to go out to the cemetery on Saturday. We finally took the rocks that we painted along with all of Mom’s grandchildren out to her grave - only took 2 years, lol. We set them all around her little headstone and took some pictures. And then we stared at them for a minute, before realizing that we couldn’t bear to leave them there. The cemetery tender will be taking everything away once the weather turns colder and we couldn’t bear the thought that they’d just get thrown out. So Jessie has decided she’s going to buy a birdbath and put it up in the yard, to put all of the rocks inside for the birds to drink out of alongside of these rocks painted in memory of Mom. It seems fitting considering how much Mom cared for the birds. And it’ll be a nice memorial in her honor. So after all that, we packed the rocks back up and brought them home. But here are the pictures we took before we did so! Shout to *The Nephew*, for talking his ridiculously inept aunties through finding their own mother’s grave on the phone - not the first time he has had to save us from wandering aimlessly around the cemetery like lost puppies. Love you, Mom!”
“September 21, 2017 was the day my mother passed away. September 21, 2019 was the day my friend Todd passed away. Which feels significant somehow, since my mom was friends with Todd as well, worked with Todd, and introduce me to Todd. He would complain at work sometimes about wanting to go see some nerdy movie and not being able to find a friend that was willing to go see it with him. Then Mom would come home from work and I would be complaining about the exact same thing, about the exact same movie. So one day she just decided that we were both ridiculous and gave Todd my phone number. After that we went to a bunch of movies together - I remember the first one we saw together was Ocean’s Eleven, he hadn’t seen it yet and I wanted desperately to see it for a second time. I remember him coming over to the house one day to watch the extended edition of the Fellowship of the Ring with me and my cousin - and of course both of them being boys, they loved all the same moments, laughed at all the same parts, recited the same quotes to each other over and over and laughed hysterically. Todd was always trying to get me to come over to his house to watch him feed his snakes, because he knew I had reoccurring nightmares about snakes. and every time he would ask me if I wanted to come over and feed mice to his snakes, I’d freak out so bad, and he would laugh and laugh and think it was hysterical. He had the best laugh. I remember when I got my first computer and I had no idea how to set it up or what the hell I was doing, and Todd came over and spent two hours hooking up all the wires and setting everything up for me, including my monitor. And then showing me how to access a bunch of stuff on my computer because I’d never been on the Internet before - if that tells you how long ago it was. We lost touch after a while, life just started taking over. But I was so happy these last few years to reconnect with him on Facebook. Todd had problems with his heart. He was on the waiting list for a heart transplant. This past week some other health issues arose and sadly he did not make it.
So please,for people like Todd, make sure if you are medically able to donate your organs, that you have checked the box on the back of your drivers license. *And* spoken to your family about your wishes. Because even if you have checked the box on your drivers license, your family can override your wishes once you’re gone. Please make sure they know that you want to donate organs. For someone like me, who will probably need a liver someday. And for someone like Todd, who needed a heart - even though as far as I’m concerned, he had such a big warm amazing heart. Rest In Peace, Todd. I will see you in Valinor.”
If you read all of that, thank you.
This entry was originally posted at https://dodger-sister.dreamwidth.org/253977.html. Please comment there using OpenID.