Update: We had a wonderful service

[ProfJohn]

Feel blessed that you have been given this time to say good bye and to be with family.

Having the chance to say good-bye is so amazingly important.

i'll pray for you and your mom.

 

[skyking]

I am sitting with her sister talking about her. We agree that our beloved sister and mom is no longer there and only a shell remains.
I hold the real lady up in the light of my mind's eye, and it is the real her and not this worn out body on the bed. There is no need to stay at her side for it is crystal clear to me that she loves me and I love her and each of us knows it. I have no regrets in this regard, nothing left unsaid.

I thank you all again from the bottom of my heart for your kind words and thoughts. They do mean a great deal to me.

I unexpectedly lost my mom last July. I received a call that she died, without warning, at 57. The worst thing about it all was I was going out there for vacation in 10 days, and I hadn't seen her since 2002. Never got a chance to see her.

I am so sorry for your loss, that would be so hard to have things left undone and unsaid. Maybe someone else will read this and make that call, hug a parent, make a trip they have put off.

 

[RESmonkey]

I'm sorry, skyking.

 

[will889]

:brokenheart:

 

[Damn Dirty Ape]

My Dad's passing in 2003 was the hardest thing I've endured so far, I can at least partly understand what you are feeling.

 

[Perknose]

A time like this is sad beyond all words. It is almost impossible for any of us to wrap our minds around the loss of a parent. They are the GIANTS who gave us life and who were always there for us. We thought without thinking that they always would be.

This is the sadness that can cut down the toughest man alive, but your Mom lives on in your great big heart, Kelly. Every time you reach out and help another, that's your living, breathing Mom, eternal and true. The body fails, but our spirit lives on forever, and can never be extinguished.

 

[Engineer]

Originally posted by: Perknose
A time like this is sad beyond all words. It is almost impossible for any of us to wrap our minds around the loss of a parent. They are the GIANTS who gave us life and who were always there for us. We thought without thinking that they always would be.

This is the sadness that can cut down the toughest man alive, but your Mom lives on in your great big heart, Kelly. Every time you reach out and help another, that's your living, breathing Mom, eternal and true. The body fails, but our spirit lives on forever, and can never be extinguished.

Truer words have never been typed David.

 

[BoomerD]

A good friend of mine. (much younger...about the age of the average ATOT'er) used to complain about HAVING to have Sunday dinner with his parents every week.

Finally, I explained that while the obligation may occasionally be a PITA, sooner than he expects, they'll no longer be around to have dinner with.

I told him that we'd pay huge sums of money to be able to have dinner with our parents again...

Much to my surprise, he took that to heart. The following Sunday, he told his parents how much it meant to him to have Sunday dinner with them...even though it was sometimes inconvenient, it was still valuable quality time for him. When asked what made the change in attitude, he told them that, "Boomer set me straight."

His mom called me and thanked me for talking to him.

SK, like I said earlier, I know from personal experience where you're at. It's heart-wrenching. Sometimes, all you can do is believe that when she goes, she'll no longer be in pain...and that she's gone to a better place.

Hold the good times near to your heart. Forget any bad ones...they don't matter anymore.

 

[skyking]

Originally posted by: Perknose
A time like this is sad beyond all words. It is almost impossible for any of us to wrap our minds around the loss of a parent. They are the GIANTS who gave us life and who were always there for us. We thought without thinking that they always would be.

This is the sadness that can cut down the toughest man alive, but your Mom lives on in your great big heart, Kelly. Every time you reach out and help another, that's your living, breathing Mom, eternal and true. The body fails, but our spirit lives on forever, and can never be extinguished.

Thanks to you I am leaking all over my brother's laptop now
Thanks to you I will think of her every time I stop to help a stranger, roof an elder neighbor's house, or do any of those things that are just as natural as breathing to me. She taught me these values and I will never regret what I have given back. Now it will be in her honor.
This household was very fluid. Sometimes I would have my own bedroom and sometimes not.
Mom and dad took in troubled teenagers like so many stray cats and dogs. Kids who would be fighting with their parents, in trouble with drinking or other things were welcomed with open arms. This went on before my birth. One of those "kids" was Gary who got his shit together, married a wonderful girl and bought a place just down the road. His kids were my contemporaries and I did not understand the special relationship he had with my mom until years later. She was his mom too you see, and I could see it in his eyes. Gary is gone now, taken by brittle diabetes. So much history, it ebbs and flows around me now.
Mom voted in the '44 election for FDR, and has never missed voting in an election since.
She lived through and participated in the Civil Rights Movement, and remembers sitting in a hotel room in Miami at the DNC, and watching Bobby Kennedy's assassination on TV.
She worked her entire career as a neonatal nurse taking care of the smallest and most seriously ill infants. She taught hundreds of mothers to breastfeed, and continued to do so long after retirement.

 

[skyking]

Originally posted by: BoomerD
A good friend of mine. (much younger...about the age of the average ATOT'er) used to complain about HAVING to have Sunday dinner with his parents every week.

Finally, I explained that while the obligation may occasionally be a PITA, sooner than he expects, they'll no longer be around to have dinner with.

I told him that we'd pay huge sums of money to be able to have dinner with our parents again...

Much to my surprise, he took that to heart. The following Sunday, he told his parents how much it meant to him to have Sunday dinner with them...even though it was sometimes inconvenient, it was still valuable quality time for him. When asked what made the change in attitude, he told them that, "Boomer set me straight."

His mom called me and thanked me for talking to him.

SK, like I said earlier, I know from personal experience where you're at. It's heart-wrenching. Sometimes, all you can do is believe that when she goes, she'll no longer be in pain...and that she's gone to a better place.

Hold the good times near to your heart. Forget any bad ones...they don't matter anymore.

Every once in a great while you win one, boomer.
Some of those good times are in the post above.

 

[Svnla]

OP, I know how you feel. My mom is sick too and she is thousands of miles away.

This thread (and the kind words) is why I like ATOT.

 

[skyking]

Originally posted by: Svnla
OP, I know how you feel. My mom is sick too and she is thousands of miles away.

This thread (and the kind words) is why I like ATOT.

I'm sorry to hear that for you. I hope you can get things right over the phone or somehow. Don't stop until you feel it in your heart and hear it from her that things are as straight as they can be.

 

[Blieb]

 

[Damn Dirty Ape]

Originally posted by: Perknose
A time like this is sad beyond all words. It is almost impossible for any of us to wrap our minds around the loss of a parent. They are the GIANTS who gave us life and who were always there for us. We thought without thinking that they always would be.

This is the sadness that can cut down the toughest man alive, but your Mom lives on in your great big heart, Kelly. Every time you reach out and help another, that's your living, breathing Mom, eternal and true. The body fails, but our spirit lives on forever, and can never be extinguished.

nominate for one of the most if not, THE most insightful comment ever made on this board.

 

[SilentZero]

 

[Amused]

I just went through this with my mom back in Oct. I know what you're going through and it's really tough.

It takes time, but the hole in your life is never filled.

 

[skyking]

The pain is over for my mom and we are so grateful. Now the real pain begins for us, but we will heal.

 

[jpeyton]

RIP

 

[GTaudiophile]

Wonderfully written edit!

Peace be with all of you.

 

[Engineer]

RIP BETTY

My God Bless you and your family Kelly. May your mom live on through you as you will live on through your kids.

 

[Old Hippie]

 

[waggy]

man loseing a mother is hard. in the last 2 years i have lost my real mother and someone who was very close to me. One of my best friends mothers was in a vehicle accident (idiot farmer pulled out in front of her in a tractor and didnt have his gear right. it fell on top of her car as she drove past) and died (after 2 weeks in the IC unit).

then to top it off my dad had a heart attack but he was fine (though it took its toll on him. he looks old now).


man getting older sucks.

 

[Kreon]

I'm sorry for your loss

I truly fear the day when I have to face the loss of one of my parents

 

[Damn Dirty Ape]

I know this might not be the perfect thought at the moment, but a few weeks/months down the road remember: "Don't cry because a life is over... smile because that life happened, and you were part of that life".

I'm going to try to keep that thought as I can when someone passes from here on out. I don't handle losses very well at all.

 

[MartyMcFly3]

Originally posted by: Kreon
I'm sorry for your loss

I truly fear the day when I have to face the loss of one of my parents