This was the 3rd in as many months, and just as sad as the previous 2. My ex boss’s mother (age 78) died from cancer though the week. She had breast cancer about a year ago, had a double mastectomy, got over the treatment and was doing ok.
And then it got her again.
This time she didn’t want any treatment, she’d had enough of that and of being sick. My boss, Anne-Marie, is just the lovliest person in the world. I adore her and looked up to her as a mentor as well as a buddy and she was an excellent audiologist (my profession in my previous life before kids). Today she gave the Eulogy and was a pall bearer with her 4 brothers and nephew. What strength did she call upon to get though this day? She looked as though she were going to fall over from exhaustion.
As I held her in a hug, she sobbed and looked bleary eyed and unfocused, but said “She just wanted to go – I didn’t want her to, but she was in so much pain she had to go”. It was a beautiful ceremony and the preist gave the most touching homily I have ever heard. He talked about the funeral being the celebration that the person has now made it to Eternal Life. And that our everyday lives are the means to get to that Eternal Life. That we shouldn’t be making things more difficult than they need to be, that we shouldn’t fight with each other and be unhappy, but live the best we can, so that when our time comes to go to that Eternal Life we are ready. Even though I am a Catholic, I’m not overly religious, but as the preist was saying this today, I was proud. I felt myself sit up taller. It really touched a chord with me and I felt that I understood what he was saying.
So now I am here at home, and the kids are fighting, the drain got blocked so I had to call the plumber and I have to lose 5 kilos, but you know what?? – suddenly it doesn’t all seem so important. I have my family, my parents, my gorgeous friends and a love of scrapbooking. That should be all I need!