Rest In Peace

Life has been very hectic recently.

My business has been keeping me extremely busy, and I couldn't be more pleased.

It is very gratifying to see an idea successfully become a reality.

i have been working six days a week for almost seven months now, and this past Tuesday we finally transitioned into a winter schedule.

I had to laugh when I saw this sign (below) on a downtown store front window the other day.

After a very busy summer tourist season Cody is slowly but irrevocably falling into hibernation mode.

My business hours are not quite this laid back, but having two days off in a row each week through the winter will be nice.

And so will getting home before dark.................

My mother died on Tuesday.

She was a few days shy of turning 82.

She died of uterine cancer.................

About a month ago one of my brothers contacted me to ask if I would write to my mother.

It would make her happy.  She did not have much else in her life.  It would mean a lot to her.

I wrote to her.

I am so terribly sorry that you are going through this.  I know how hard this is for you.  I wish you peace and strength, and that you will always be surrounded by friends and family who love and care about you.

She wrote back - interpreting (as I feared she would) my message as an opening to talk.  To find common ground.  To catch up on 30 years of living in different worlds.

I never responded back.

It was too late.

There was no going back.

My mother died, surrounded by her four local children and I sent an email to my youngest brother (who is always in one exotic part of the world or another).

I was sorry to be the one to break the news to him.

My sister sent me a picture of my mother and four of my siblings.

My mother looked terrible.

The four (who are all younger than me) all looked older than me.

My father was not in the picture and when I asked my sister twice if he was there when my mother died, she never responded back.

I prefer to think that he was there at the end.

But I don't know that for certain.

Rest In Peace Mom.....................