The good and the bad

Yes, there is more going on here besides me putting up snippets on Saturday Spankings. There is really good stuff and unfortunately really bad stuff too.

 

The good stuff: Mollie just got back from California where she was visiting  a friend. I’m never wild about her traveling alone, but she seems to know what she’s doing and can navigate an airport better than I can. She's enjoying her summer and the dogs had fun staying with the grandparents while she was away.

 

I mentioned several months ago that Collin (my SIL) had applied for a new job. We didn’t hear anything for a long time, so I didn’t have much hope. But he got it! This past week was his first and he’s so excited. It’s at the Natural History Museum. When he found out he sent me a picture of someone dressed up as a T-Rex running through the Museum. I texted back, “I hope they give you that job!” His reply was, “Me too!”

But not everything here is great. I have a friend I’ve mentioned several time. She was my teaching partner for ten years, before she went and retired on me. She’s my best buddy and we often go to lunch, or the movies or the dinner theater in our little town. She had a rough few years. First, she fell and broke her neck. She was in a brace she couldn’t remove for four months, during this time she fell and broke her arm. We often spoke of bubble wrap. We should have used it. 

 

This past February she fell again and there was a serious brain bleed. Surgery patched her up and she was doing all right. Her walking was a little unsteady, but mentally she was perfect. She used a walker when we went out but not if she was with her husband. Two weeks ago I got a call from her daughter. The walking had suddenly gotten much worse and they had gone to the ER. She was sent to a larger hospital for more surgery. She woke up afterwards and talked just a little with the family. But that was in. She was in a coma and on life support. She came home on a Thursday, under hospice care, after having been taken off the respirator.

 

I went to see her on Friday. There was no response at all. But she was home with her husband and three children and that made me feel better. I started back to see her the next day. I got halfway there and decided, no, it wasn't time for a visit. And I turned around and came home. An hour later I got another call from her daughter saying that Mary had passed away. If I’d gone, I would have been there when she died and somehow I don’t think I was supposed to be.

 

This loss has really rocked me. At my age you don’t have tons of close friends you go out and do things with. And you have little chance of meeting more. This is a huge hole in my life and I keep stumbling over the reality. 

 

If you have a friend that you care deeply about and you haven’t seen them in a while. Call them up and plan to go to lunch, or invite them to a movie, or over for coffee. But contact them, don’t lose the chance.