October 26, 2002

•  

  
  

  Did y’all miss me?

  
  

  I missed being here with Jason & the kids…believe me.  Poor Jason had to play Mom while I was away.  Things have been a bit hectic around here since I’ve been back.  The days after Mom & I returned, my car decided to die on me on the way to work. (as if I needed anymore to happen at that moment)  Luckily it died just before a side street and I was able to turn off of the main road in order to avoid major rush hour traffic.  The two really nice men stopped and pushed my car into the parking lot of the Firestone shop on the corner. 

  
  

  I called my Mom and told her to ask Jason to come and get me.  I then called my work and told them that I’d be out yet another day.  I’m lucky to have a very understanding company to work for.  They even sent me a bouquet of flowers and a very nice note of encouragement and support after my Grandpa died.  After speaking with them, I called the towing service and was told it’d be at least 90 minutes before someone would be there to get my car.  Well, normally I wouldn’t mind this at all…but, the weather here has been winter like instead of fall like…so, it was a bit cold that morning and I was in a car without any heat.

  
  

  To my amazement, the tow truck showed up only 20 minutes later and I was sitting inside the warm cab of the tow truck while waiting for Jason to arrive and for the truck driver to load my car.  Jason arrived not much long after that and we were off to meet the tow truck at the dealership where the car was being towed to. 

  
  

  It was just a very hectic morning and pretty much the last straw for me after dealing with a very emotional and draining four days.

  
  

  My flights home weren’t bad at all…which was a comfort to me.  However, once I got into Michigan…I found out that they sent my bag to Florida by accident.  Nice eh?  Now mind you…I was wearing a tee shirt and jeans and didn’t exactly want to show up at the funeral dressed in that attire.  Thankfully my bag showed up around 10:30pm that night…which by that point I didn’t really care because I’d had about 4 margaritas.  (oops)

  
  

  Things went pretty well while in Michigan considering the circumstances and all.  My Mom was VERY glad that I was there with her…and I was happy to be there for her.  I knew that she needed me and so that is where I was meant to be…holding her hand through it all.

  
  

  I saw many people throughout the time up there.  My Grandpa was a very well known Orthopedic surgeon in our community up there…and around the nation.  He was a pioneer in his field and developed many procedures that are used today.  He even invented a surgical tool that is now very commonly used in orthopedics.  Pretty cool eh? 

  
  

  Well, because of his notoriety…there were a great deal of visitors at his viewing on Sunday afternoon.  In fact, there were so many that we had to hold three separate sessions.  That made for a VERY long day let me tell you.  By the end of the day I thought that if I heard one more person tell me that they hadn’t seen me since I was a little girl…I was gonna just lose my mind!!  See…I need to move back somewhere closer to home.

  
  

  The funeral service was the next morning and it was a somber time.  I think that the hardest part about burying my Grandpa was having him be buried only 3 spaces over from my Dad.

  
  

  I saw a lot of family members that I’d hadn’t seen in many years…including my 1st cousins from my Mom’s younger brother.  David and Lisa grew up with Mark and I and we were all very close as children…but lost touch with each other after high school.  Lisa still lives in Grand Rapids and is a police officer in the private sector.  David lives just outside Indianapolis and is an engineer for a large engineering company.  Lisa hasn’t married as of yet and doesn’t have any children…while David is married and has two little boys, Logan & Carson, who are both under 3 and only 16 months apart in age.  He has his hands full…I know from experience…haha.

  
  

  It was good to see them and spend some time with the two of them after all these years.  They both want me to move back up North so that we are all closer to each other.  I’ve been wanting to do that anyway…and Jason wants to also…so, I think that a move will be inevitable.  Although, Lisa wants me back in Michigan while David would love to have me out in Indiana…and of course Jason wants to move back to Indiana…so, I think David will probably get his wish.  Not that I’ll be far from Grand Rapids…only about 4 hours or so…that’s closer than I am now!

  
  

  After the funeral was over and we all went out to lunch together…I decided that my Mom needed to get her mind off of everything that had gone on the past few days so…we went to see a couple of movies.  She enjoyed that and we hadn’t done that in a while…it was good.

  
  

  We checked out the next morning and I thought that it’d be a good idea to go out and do something until our flight left…so, we went to the zoo.  I hadn’t been to the zoo out there since I was a small child. In fact, I believe the last visit was with my classmates from elementary school on a field trip…gee, that was a long time ago..haha.

  
  

  I took tons of photos while we were there…and oh did the sites bring back a lot of memories.  It was very cool and Mom and I both enjoyed it all a great deal.  We cut our visit there short however, in order to get to the airport on time to catch our flight home.  This time I would be taking my bag with me as a carry on…no more visits to Florida for that bag!!

  
  

  Jason picked us up from the airport with all of the kids.  Talk about some happy faces!!  I’m just glad to be back here with all of them and in my own bed.

  
  

  Thanks again to all of you for your wonderful comments and touching words. 

  
  

  I should have some photos to post soon from my various trips to Michigan…so stay tuned.

  • 9:08 pm
  • 8 Comments