For not being physically here, it was a nice day celebrating Mitzi’s birthday and there sure were a lot of little MitzWinks that popped up. After a beautiful sunrise, I had lunch at one of Mitzi’s most favorite places with two of my sweet friends who were so wonderful with her. They even had a purple balloon waiting when I walked in. Tory would come to the house and cut Mitzi’s hair when it was too difficult to take her out in the last few months. Tracey was always fabulous with Mitzi, and even came to Hospice one night when it was my shift and stayed until 3:30am so I could nap and not worry about something happening if I drifted off. She read the Bible to her, sang over her, and held her hand. Then she did an absolutely outstanding job coordinating the beautiful Celebration of Life service for Mitzi at church.
This evening, we invited Gary to join us for dinner at one of their favorite local seafood restaurants. Our waitress was named Melody (which is the same name as my totally talented friend who sang the stellar version of Rescue during Mitzi’s service). The menu included Grandma Betty’s southern style veggies (Betty was Mitzi & Angela’s mother’s name). Afterward, Gary invited us to the house for cake and ice cream (he even got a special gluten-free cupcake for my youngest son).
It was hard for my kids to be there at the house and not see her there. It was hard for me the first time I went. I can’t imagine what it was like for Gary and her kids. I had forgotten to take that into account. It really is so easy to forget that our kids’ ability to process grief is different and it is so important to look for behaviors outside of the norm and allow them to talk about their feelings.
I wondered if Mitzi got to peek down and see that she was still very much present in so many hearts today. As we were pulling out of their driveway, with the almost full moon coming up over the rooftop, the kids, Ray, and I could not believe what song started playing on the radio. I guess I had my answer that she had been keeping tabs on everything…????
