She is gone
This evening, just after my brother Jim had left for home in Brooklyn, my mother passed away.
My brother Rick and I had just moved the table with the flowers and Photos of my father to a spot where she could see them if she came to for any bit of time and we were trying to tell her that it was OK to pass. I told her that my father was waiting for her probably dressed to go out and playing an organ wondering when she would be ready to go. Her eyes opened slightly, her breath slowed, I went to her side and held her hand and she died. It was as if she had come to a sudden clarity of mind and realized that instead of being trapped in a dyeing body surrounded by he children that were sad for her plight she could be with my dad: the man she loved and respected no matter how pissed off she got at him. This was in true form to her character. Poor Jim had to turn around and come back.
Just today my neighbor was telling me about when he moved into the house next to us in '79. His wife was pregnant and he was stuck away at a job, he worked for sparrows point and the like. My mother seeing her new pregnant neighbor was possibly in need, told her that we had 2 freezers full of food and that they could have anything they needed. She did not care that our new neighbors were one of the few blacks in the neighborhood, she had shed her prejudice of her background and parents. She had gone from riding trolly cars as a girl and not giving it a second thought that the black had to ride in the back to thinking of sharing what ever she had with strangers that had just moved in next door that happened to be black. There are many of her generation that still don't have that. Life is not only about who you are it is about who you were and did you improve: she did. She had may faults, as I have shared over the years, but she had virtues as well.
We official make arrangements tomorrow, but the rough out is 1 day viewing at Evan's in Parkville MD and then cremation on Wednesday.
My brother Rick and I had just moved the table with the flowers and Photos of my father to a spot where she could see them if she came to for any bit of time and we were trying to tell her that it was OK to pass. I told her that my father was waiting for her probably dressed to go out and playing an organ wondering when she would be ready to go. Her eyes opened slightly, her breath slowed, I went to her side and held her hand and she died. It was as if she had come to a sudden clarity of mind and realized that instead of being trapped in a dyeing body surrounded by he children that were sad for her plight she could be with my dad: the man she loved and respected no matter how pissed off she got at him. This was in true form to her character. Poor Jim had to turn around and come back.
Just today my neighbor was telling me about when he moved into the house next to us in '79. His wife was pregnant and he was stuck away at a job, he worked for sparrows point and the like. My mother seeing her new pregnant neighbor was possibly in need, told her that we had 2 freezers full of food and that they could have anything they needed. She did not care that our new neighbors were one of the few blacks in the neighborhood, she had shed her prejudice of her background and parents. She had gone from riding trolly cars as a girl and not giving it a second thought that the black had to ride in the back to thinking of sharing what ever she had with strangers that had just moved in next door that happened to be black. There are many of her generation that still don't have that. Life is not only about who you are it is about who you were and did you improve: she did. She had may faults, as I have shared over the years, but she had virtues as well.
We official make arrangements tomorrow, but the rough out is 1 day viewing at Evan's in Parkville MD and then cremation on Wednesday.