It has been three weeks since the loss of my Dad and while the initial
numbness is easing, the hard parts are not.
When in the thick of a crisis I tend to say to myself, "If I can just get through X, I'll be fine." X being a tough day, a week, an event. I have a way of breaking things up in to manageable mental bits so I don't go completely postal and/or collapse. "If I can get on the plane and get home to my family, I'll be OK. If I can get through the wake and visitation, I'll be fine. That's the hard part. No, wait. If I can get through the funeral....the burial....the exhausting plane trip back to Gloucester....." . I just keep making those little goals because the big one is too much to comprehend or manage. Like the little train, I keep chugging along with "I think I can... I think I can..." but seriously, right now, I think I can't.
I forgot about the next part.
The aftermath, the physical
exhaustion, the mental grief. Yesterday was a good example. I am working on a grant for the local library and spent most of the day on my 7-year-old computer (AKA the *#&$^% boat anchor) trying to wrestle down documents and cope with incompatibilities in software. I thought I would take a break and sync up my iPad and iPod touch so I can have some commute-worthy books to listen to on the road.
As I watched one device sync I noticed a lot of songs I didn't recall buying. HYMNS, for heaven's sake. "King of the Road" by Roger Miller! Then it dawned on me - I downloaded those on wi-fi at the hospital so Dad could listen to some familiar music. Dad loved him some Roger Miller. I don't even know if he could hear them, but I played them for him.
Then I got an email from my brother with a copy of the death certificate. (I'm going to release the (Sicilian) hounds - my husband - on American Airlines for being so heartless.) When another brother requested the family address book, I (as the keeper of the family minutia, ephemera, and other stuff) popped open my spreadsheet and saw the list of addresses and phone numbers.... including the ones for Dad. Hard to look at
that. I deleted those before I sent it along, but when I popped open the browser to get back to my email I saw the bookmark for his Caring Bridge website where we kept far-flung relatives aware of his status. Another thing to delete. A thousand little things that appear and sting and compound the loss. Even hearing the TV commercial about "setting up financial arrangements before a loved one goes in to a nursing home" sent me on a brief , "I wonder if Gary got the billing sorted out before Dad moves to.....oh." A thousand
little things.
Mothers Day is thankfully past, but made even more difficult this year by falling on my Dad's birthday. Really, world? Seriously? Not enough stress for one day? Then a sister wisely pointed out that we gave them both the gift they have surely wanted for almost ten years - we gave them back each other. (Can I get a "thank God for sisters" from the choir?)
It helped. But it is the thousand little things that rain like fine, thin shards of glass and fall without warning on your head and your heart. I know it will let up, I know it will get better. I went through this when we lost Mom, but I really did forget (or blocked out) this part, and I can't break it up into manageable bits because that is not how it works. I push through each day. I crave sleep. I turn on my sound machine app to a quiet rainstorm to drown out the noise of traffic and motorcycles. I want it to be quiet. I want peace. I want to stop crying at unexpected moments and inappropriate places. I want the roller coaster ride to level off.
I do not want to do this part but I do not have a choice.
Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Maybe someday, but I'm not feeling it now. I'm just sayin'.
This is such a large quilt I had to spread the blocks out on my king-size bed. I did about 3 miles of walking, looping the long hallway between my bedroom and the sewing room. On one trip I placed some connected blocks next to the long row they would be attached to and realized - I goofed. Not a little "opps" goof, but an EPIC FAIL GOOF. A sit-down-on-the-bed-and swear goof. To make matters worse, I did some periodic reverse stitching to strengthen a few places where the seam allowance wasn't quite (ahem) 1/4 inch. As I looked even closer, I saw a single row of half square triangles on one block that was....going the wrong way. Four little half square triangles.....would anyone notice? I did, and my mother's voice in my head did, too.
VCR - ironically, The Agony and the Ecstasy. It seemed appropriate for the task and besides - I loves me some campy Charlton Heston movies. I managed to separate the scofflaws but had to sacrifice two entire blocks as the surgical separation necessitated some fabric amputation. It pained me deeply. I will push on and finish this thing but the next time I even THINK about doing a Lady of the Lake quilt I want someone out there to beat me about the head and shoulders with a blunt instrument. This quilt will never lie flat or square up well. I don't think even Charlton Heston as Moses (another fav campy flick) could pull something that biblically epic out his hat.
