The Rest of My Life

  Where do I go from here? That question has been swirling around in my mind since my mother's passing. I knew this day would come but it was easier to just push those thoughts away and live in the moment. Well, I can't do that anymore. The day is here. Losing my dad was hard but we still had my mom to lean on and care for, so that lessened the blow a bit. There was no lifeline to hold onto when mom left us. I'm lucky to have my sisters and my brother and their families. We hold each other up. We'll still have those holiday gatherings,  but it won't be the same without mom. We always felt dad's loss more around the holidays and we'll be missing both of them now. I'm glad to have a job that I love and that is busy, because it helps the time pass. I've enjoyed my job more this past year than I ever did, because it brought new challenges. I needed that because it was getting a little monotonous, especially with the isolation of working from home. I rose...

  Saturday was the hardest day of my life. Saturdays are supposed to be my casino day with mom. Instead, w e laid my beautiful mother to rest. She suffered a stroke on July 6 and just wasn't able to overcome the damage it did. She slipped away peacefully on August 8 with family by her side. We take comfort in knowing she is no longer in pain and no longer suffering. She is with my dad again and we will miss her terribly, just as we've missed my dad these past 10 years. The stroke came out of the blue, as they often do. Our family spent 4th of July together and mom got up early that day and made her famous chocolate and banana cream pies. We had a great day listening to music, eating too much and playing games. We certainly never expected it to be the last holiday we spent with her. I'm glad we made a bit of a big deal out of her birthday this year and took her to the steakhouse at Turning Stone casino. We never expected it to be the last birthday we spent with her either. M...