There is that saying "Blah blah comes in threes". Now, depending on where your head is at, this saying can go something like "Good things come in threes"; "Trouble comes in threes"; "Bad luck comes in threes"; or "Death comes in threes". (GULP)
I come from an Irish background where being obsessed with death is a cultural phenomenon. I have always been told, "Death comes in threes". As many of you know, we lost our battle this week to keep Annabel alive and lost her to the heavens on Tuesday. Being of Irish decent I did wonder what death was coming next...
Brian was amazing about his kitty and I should probably write about kids and death at some point. They seem to have this natural understanding of the process. Because of Brian's ability to handle the situation in a profound way, I did not completely "loose it." We had a proper burial for her, with prayers, kind words and candles. There is a tiny statue of a child holding a kitten marking the spot. We are at peace, which lovey kitty would have wanted since she was a cat that loved to love.
This morning at 6:30, my phone rings. It's EBet. Our friend Leslie's mother died at 4:00am this morning. It has been expected for some time now, although it does not make her passing any easier for Leslie. This was number two....
I lit a candle for them at sunrise and wished her spirit a calm passage into the other world. I also said a prayer for Leslie, as I am sure her heart is aching over the loss of her mother. These days will go like a blur and she will only remember tiny pieces of the day's events. These moments always take me back to the day my father died.
I remember the weather, the day (a Saturday) and whom I was with. I remember my mother pulling a cloth over my father's still face and the look of his large frame permanently asleep in his favorite chair. I remember Walter walking me around our large city block while the city coroner came to take my father away in his long black Hearse. Then there are the lost periods throughout his funeral week, where I know more must have happened, but I simply don't remember.
On a lighter note...my new water heater died on Tuesday too. The guys are here today putting in another new one. Maybe this is the third death? I'll settle for it being a water heater. It has been interesting living without hot water, as dishes pile up in the dishwasher and I grow tired of take-out food. I have been showering at a friend's house and Brian has been bathing at his dad's. There is no funeral ceremony with a dead water heater, just a lot of groaning and cursing by the guys trying to make it fit in Brian's tiny closet. I love having men slave over stuff I don't want to ever learn how to do myself.
Death always brings change; unfortunately we aren't always ready to roll with it. I know death is a part of life...I just wish it would happen to people I don't know and never to me. I could just imagine the stories my girlfriends and me would have at age 400. "Gessh, my breasts were hanging so far that the guy behind me stepped on them..."...
Until next time-
C
