I accomplished all my appointments/errands Friday afternoon and was headed home when I received a call from my stepmom Barb that my Grandma had died peacefully in her sleep earlier that day. She suffered a stroke about 8 years ago and hasn't been doing so well since then, especially this last month. I had planned to visit her this weekend as it would have been her 86th birthday tomorrow but now we'll be attending her funeral instead.
Saturday I still went ice skating with Shannon and the kids as planned and we had a good time. Afterwards, I stopped at my dad and Barb's because he called me that morning saying that they had a computer desk if I wanted it which I did so now I'm finally writing this from a proper setting instead of that stupid tv tray I've been using for the past year and half. We sat around for a while, watching his four tv's, had a couple of beers and chatted. It's weird - I'll sometimes go for months without seeing or talking to him and now we've hung out 3 times since xmas. Maybe there's some healing in there.
Mark ang Greg worked on the kitchen all day and that night he smoked the first cigarette he's had in nearly a month. I can't say that I've been as good. He was mad at himself and irritable the next day but fine by the time we met up with his family for the SuperBowl. With everyone talking, I couldn't enjoy the commercials and the halftime show so much but I did get a lot of knitting done and even watched the tail end of the game by myself once he dropped me off at home. Yes, me. Shocking, I know! The sight and sound of football doesn't bother me as much as it used to. Maybe there's some healing in there, too.
Ever the good boyfriend, he picked me up for the Vigil Service this evening and was cordial with all the many family friends and relatives. There were out-of-town cousins there I haven't seen in years. I let him off the hook for tomorrow's events which include a private interment, a memorial mass and a pizza party at Sortino's. "Isn't the interment usually after the mass?" my sister asked. My aunt Nina said yes but my Grandma planned it so that everyone would have to drive less. She wasn't very verbally affectionate but she was always thinking about others. And she loved a big Wasinger family pizza party - this one will be in her honor.
This is probably the best picture I have of us, taken some years ago at Christmas: