Lay down your sweet and weary head
My last entry (well, the entry before that) seems rather timely now. Robby's grandmother died yesterday afternoon. (By the way, I found out that her name was Genevive, called Jenny.) I was asleep and he was making dinner when his mom texted; he picked it up and brought it in and showed it to me without much comment. He came back a couple of minutes later and asked how I'd feel about going to Tampa.
So we've been her for about 24 hours now. We're staying with his favorite aunt and uncle (Patti and Johnny--Juan really, he's Cuban, but only she calls him Juan and only every now and then). Their son and his wife live next door; their daughter and her husband live a couple blocks down with their three kids. And two of Patti's three siblings all live nearby, so their house is something of the family watering hole.
Robby's dad, Rob, is here as well. He's been helping Dave, Jenny's husband, to make all the arrangements. So far everyone's pretty calm. As Alison pointed out, she'd been sick for so long that I think they had all let her go to some degree. But Patti did warn us that after tomorrow--when the short memorial service will be--after everything's been taken care of --that then is when they will probably dissolve.
So far it's been okay, though. Robby's fashion of grieving seems much less weird in the context of (this side of) his family. Patti made it clear that no one who didn't want to go to the service tomorrow has to. They--meaning Patti and Johnny and Rob--are encouraging everyone to go on as usual, being sad or whatever as they want to, but not letting themselves completely fall apart. And they are also taking care to be supportive of each other, from quietly doing things for each other to passing the baby around so everyone has a chance to have baby therapy or a break from said baby to take a nap. (Her name's Melody, she's three months old and adorable.)
We'll be here through tomorrow, partially just to stick around and partially because Robby's mom (Madelyn) is flying in for the day. (That will be interesting. Hopefully good interesting.) Tomorrow will probably be a lot harder but so far, I am more than okay with how this is going.
So we've been her for about 24 hours now. We're staying with his favorite aunt and uncle (Patti and Johnny--Juan really, he's Cuban, but only she calls him Juan and only every now and then). Their son and his wife live next door; their daughter and her husband live a couple blocks down with their three kids. And two of Patti's three siblings all live nearby, so their house is something of the family watering hole.
Robby's dad, Rob, is here as well. He's been helping Dave, Jenny's husband, to make all the arrangements. So far everyone's pretty calm. As Alison pointed out, she'd been sick for so long that I think they had all let her go to some degree. But Patti did warn us that after tomorrow--when the short memorial service will be--after everything's been taken care of --that then is when they will probably dissolve.
So far it's been okay, though. Robby's fashion of grieving seems much less weird in the context of (this side of) his family. Patti made it clear that no one who didn't want to go to the service tomorrow has to. They--meaning Patti and Johnny and Rob--are encouraging everyone to go on as usual, being sad or whatever as they want to, but not letting themselves completely fall apart. And they are also taking care to be supportive of each other, from quietly doing things for each other to passing the baby around so everyone has a chance to have baby therapy or a break from said baby to take a nap. (Her name's Melody, she's three months old and adorable.)
We'll be here through tomorrow, partially just to stick around and partially because Robby's mom (Madelyn) is flying in for the day. (That will be interesting. Hopefully good interesting.) Tomorrow will probably be a lot harder but so far, I am more than okay with how this is going.