Saying Good-Bye

It was a year ago today (Sunday, though the date was the 10th) that I took Mommy to see Janet.

Linda was heading back to Shreveport, so she would take Mom that far, and John would pick her up there to take her home. I know Mom was shocked by how Janet appeared, bald and so ill, but Jannie needed to see her mommy one more time. She needed to say good bye. I touched her arm and said, "Janet, Mommy's here." She said, "I know."

I stayed behind to help Paul care for Janet, and give him a chance to rest and be at home with Thomas and Grace. I ended up calling him sometime in the wee hours of the morning, and disturbed his rest.

I could tell that the end was near and she might be waiting for him to be there. He told her that he loved her, and what a good mommy and wife she was, and that he'd take care of the kids...

She seemed to relax and took her final breaths...then rested in the arms of Jesus.



We love you, Paul for the love and care that you gave to her. No one could have made her happier.

We love you, Thomas and Grace. I know that whatever you do in life, you will always make your momma proud.

God bless you all.

Letting Go

Meg has made it safely to Japan and is, seemingly, adjusting well to it. Of course, she had quite a travel adventure (all her flights were late, so she barely made her connections) to tell us about.

We have SKYPE, a computer "phoning" system, so we can talk to her and see her (thanks to webcams), and she can see us, i.e., her brothers can make faces, dance, and be totally silly in real time for her. It's such a miraculous thing, to see and hear her so clearly, from the other side of the world! It's like something from The Jetsons or Star Trek...the kids can't think why we are so amazed by this (they are so technologically advanced).

She's living in a dorm, full of exchange students. Her roommate is from Kenya, Christine, and she is meeting people from all over the world, including a fair amount from the US. She has a "speaking partner", Naru, who is a freshman English major (she'll help "Megu" with her Japanese and Meg helps her with her English), and a "home visit" family (only the daughter speaks some English) to learn the culture from. She's taking a full class schedule, but will still have time to explore the country (already she's been to Kyoto and Osaka... she's in Hirakata City).

It's always been a dream of hers to go to Japan, so when this opportunity came up...She had to go for it! It was part of her scholarship to have a stipend for a semester abroad, so (though, ideally, I thought England or Scotland) we said she could.

I know she's going to learn and grow from this experience, even more so than at Alabama (Roll Tide!). John and I know that God is leading her wherever she needs to go, so we're not worried about her. Our prayers and love go with her.

"When you walk through a storm..."

Mommy always calls in here to check,"Has someone walked Shadow?" Of course, we have. We walk him and Daisy every morning and every evening, without fail.

One night she took Shadow outside, after dark, "because no one walked him yesterday".

I told her that we walk him every day, no matter what. I said we were like the post office,

"Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night..."

Once when Hurricane Gustav was raging outside, Mommy came into the house, because she was "afraid of the storm". At almost the exact instant, she asked if the boys were going to walk the dogs. I said, "Mommy, you came in here because you're afraid of the wind, rain, and lightening, but you want to make sure my kids take your dog for a walk in it?!"

So, of course, we walked the dogs in the storm...

January "made me shiver..."

Well, we've had the stomach virus,

Not at all a pleasant experience, but it totally made me appreciate why in cholera epidemics, they invented the "cholera cot", because there's no way your going to make it to the bathroom anyway... at least it was somewhat staggered, so that there were enough bathrooms for the victims at the time. Mommy had a very mild case, thankfully.

and now we (Mike, Matt and I) have had the flu.

(John and Mommy had flu shots so they didn't get it). Matt and I are still having lingering respiratory problems, i.e., "coughing up a lung"every morning.

We're hoping that we are through with being sick for a long while.

Of course, it brought to mind the January when Marty was supposed to have her Wizard of OZ birthday party (for some reason, they always played the movie every year in January). That year her birthday happened to fall at or near the play date. We had designed an elaborate yellow brick road on the dining room table, a Barbie was dressed as Dorothy, and the cake was the far off Emerald City (I'm sure it rivaled anything the Ace of Cakes has to offer, today). As the date and time of the party drew near, we were "dropping like flies", falling victim to whatever ailment we had (flu?, virus?). Anyway, the party had to be cancelled. As we all lay about the house, presumably wherever we "dropped", Herman laid on the couch moaning loudly. Mother commented to him, "We all have it!" To which he replied, "Yeah, but it hurts me more!"