Yesterday was my mother's funeral service. It was a difficult day, but I am relieved that it is behind us. You must understand that our grieving process began the day of her terminal diagnosis a year ago. She did put up a good fight though, she was initially given 4-6 months to live, but she endured up to a week shy of a year.
In the two weeks my sister and I spent at her bedside caring for her, I think the most important thing I learned from her was not that she was stubborn (inside joke), but rather I learned the importance of not giving up on what you believe in, and what you want.
She was 81 and lived a life of hardship at a very young age, but she also lived a long, happy life with my father. They were married 56 years before he passed, had 7 children, 11 grandchildren, and 13 great-grandbabies (and most likely still counting) as a result, that's a pretty good legacy to leave behind.
I feel blessed that she was my mother, thankful for everything she taught me, and honoured that she entrusted in me what she did in life.
Her one wish was to die at home, and I thought it would be weird/awkward/uncomfortable when in fact, it was quite the opposite, it was comfortable/righteous/intimate and yes, I'd even say beautiful.
In waiting for the doctor to come officially pronounce her deceased, it gave us the time we needed to say goodbye. I'd find myself gravitating to her bed every once in a while to hug her, touch her, kiss her forehead and tell her how much I loved her...how is that not beautiful I ask?
We keep saying that we have to take a step back and return to the way things were in certain aspects of life, but we never actually do it. Or do we? House calls from medical staff has come back , as well as homecare for ill patients, and those are pretty significant I would say.
We may still have a ways to go, and not everything from the past was good or great, but if we take a look around us, at the events of the past couple of years, we can clearly see that this "newer way" of doing things has come with a pretty hefty price tag. i.e. the depletion of our environment, our planet, ourselves (from stress, metal breakdowns/burnouts).
I think we owe it to ourselves and our future generations to put our heads and our hearts together to figure this shit out before it's too late for all of us, we need to make life/earth beautiful, healthy and happy once again. All everyone needs to do is one thing, and if everyone does that one thing then we can proceed to the next, and the next, and all that we must do to maintain a sustainable lifestyle for many generations to come.
Rest peacefully mom, it's time for you to reap all the rewards that you have earned now.
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