March wasn't the greatest month, and let's just say April hasn't exactly shown itself to be a great improvement from it's predecessor. The day after my last post, Tuesday the 31st, my dad went into the hospital with a bad cough, low blood pressure, and generally poor health. The next few days were a roller coaster of "maybe he can get better" to "this is your last chance to talk to him, better say good bye". I of course was stuck here so had to settle for video chats, which we were able to have and I'm so grateful, because he passed away that following Thursday evening, surrounded by all the family that lives up north. It was all a very surreal experience, and quite honestly still doesn't feel real since I wasn't even able to go up for the small funeral that they were able to have (thanks Coronavirus). I have been mostly putting it out of my mind since I don't really know what else to do with it, but I am definitely hoping to go up to La Crete as soon as possible. Optimistically I'm hoping for June, but who knows what the travel situation will be like by then. I still can't believe this happened now, at a time when gathering and travel is so limited - grieving without human contact, how unnatural. I am glad that he was surrounded by family and by the sounds of it, it was a very peaceful passing in the end. He was awake a few hours before he passed and we were all able to say good bye, he was completely with it mentally until right at the very end, thank God. Many people don't get that, so I'm grateful for the small mercies we were able to have in this trying time.
My friend Kristy had her 40th birthday the Saturday after my dad passed, and we had planned this backyard gathering where we could celebrate but still basically follow social distancing guidelines. I decided not to cancel it, it was nice to be around friends and celebrate something happy. We all needed some interaction, it was a really fun evening.
The funeral was this past Wednesday, but since I couldn't be there, I planned a video chat "service" for myself, Liz, Dave, and Angie, and opened it up to any Grandkids that wanted to join. So many grand kids were involved, it was so great to be together at least in this small way. I played a few songs on the piano (first time ever playing in front of anyone and in those circumstances, not so sure that was wise as far as performance quality, but it wasn't about that obviously), Liz read the obituary, Julia read a poem she had written and Dave had a message for us. We are all hopeful that we can get together as a family in the summer and have a proper memorial service for him, one that he deserves.
So obviously this has been a difficult few weeks for me, and not just because of the quarantine. The kids are doing okay with all of it, we took last week off as "Spring Break" and started some home schooling again on Monday. There will be actual graded work being handed out starting next Monday, so this is our last week of just flying by the seat of our pants. I'm relieved that some of the burden for lesson planning will be off of me, and I think the kids are ready for more structure as well. Washington Covid cases have been slowing down a lot so I am hopeful that maybe there is at least a partial opening of "life" to look forward to in May, but I just know everything will be so different for a long time yet. I can't help but think that life will never go back to being exactly as it was, I'm sure some of the changes will be positive, but will we always keep our distance from people now? What is going to be the outcome of all this? I hope I read this post in 5 years and can say that we all came through this and became a better society, but who knows.
We did have a small "egg" hunt on Easter Sunday, as the kids weren't willing to forgo all fun because of our circumstances. It was a nice day, we had a nice rib roast dinner as well to signify that this was a day to be celebrated. The weather has been beautiful, what a grace to be given in this time. So strange, we were supposed to be on our Spring Break vacation last week. This was not meant to be at all because even without the quarantine, we would have had to cancel and go up to La Crete for the funeral instead. What strange times we are living in right now. Hopefully my next post will be a bit more upbeat, I can't really make up a happy go lucky feeling right now! This too shall pass.
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