Loss

This week I am late in posting.  I really try to do this early in the week but this week got away from me.  Yesterday I got "the call" from my sister that our mother had passed away unexpectedly.  She was 88 and had been in a nursing home for a few years with advancing Alzheimer's.   The last time I was there she did not know my sister and I. 

Although I am sad she is gone it seems as if I have been mourning her for years.  As her thinking became more fragmented and muddled and she forgot daily skills such as walking, each resulted in new mourning.  We lost our mother months ago, its just that her body continued working.

She was of that generation that just kept moving forward.  Four years ago she fell down the stairs and broke her hip.  That injury, which is usually the beginning of the end for many older folks, was the start of her downward spiral.  First to go were her physical abilities and later her thinking and memory. 

When I got the call from my sister we both had a laugh/cry about what was it like for our mother when she stepped out of this world and into heaven.  My mother was a woman of deep faith so I know that she is with the Lord right now.  I just wonder at that moment when this life ended and her eternal life began what was it like?  We had prayed for the end of her pain, confusion and limited abilities.  We just were surprised that it happened so quickly and quietly.

She left this life on her terms.  I know I will see her again when my life is completed.

Mother, I hope heaven is all you imagined it would be and more.  You were loved and you will be missed.