Five years ago today, my mother passed away after battling lung cancer. Before my mother died I had never had anyone really close to me pass away. I'll admit that you never stop missing the person, and those feelings don't diminish as the years pass. Five years have passed, but I think about her all the time and wonder how she's doing, wherever she is. Here are ten things I miss the most about her:
1. I miss the daily phone calls, just to say she was checking on us. Almost everyday, the phone would ring around 10am and it would be my mom just calling to see how things were going.
2. I miss stopping by Rich and Mom's house to see what new project they were working on, or how their yard was shaping up. I've never known two harder working individuals, nor two people more suited for each other.
3. I miss telling her all about the things the kids are doing. She was never too busy to talk about her beloved grandchildren. Sometimes we talked about the same things over and over, but she didn't care.
4. I miss sharing events with her such as holidays, weddings, new babies, etc. She loved holidays and always went crazy decorating and preparing.
5. I miss her fun birthday traditions with her grandchildren. Shopping trips and birthday dinners at Round Table Pizza.
6. I miss road-trips with all the kids in the Suburban to see Khristine and her family. Those were such fun times. We started at 4am and arrived in S. Cal. by noon!
7. I miss special days to the movies or whatever fun event she planned. She always did something special with the grandchildren to celebrate HER birthday.
8. I miss watching her caring relationship with Darlin and Papa and how good she was to her parents. It nearly broke their hearts to lose her.
9. I miss taking the kids up to visit her in the library at Chico State. Many times we'd surprise her and show up unannounced. She loved those visits.
10. I miss how everything smelled really good; her car, her house, and especially HER! For the first year after she was gone, I would find something of hers around my house, and I would hold it up to my nose and smell her. That was so neat. She always smelled so good! I really miss that smell.
I do know one thing, though. I KNOW I will see her again. And I look forward to that joyous reunion in the future.
Such nice memories... She is sure still checking on you and feeling great seeing your lovely family's happiness everyday.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your sweet comments. You're right; I truly believe she is checking on us and even watching us from where she is :)
ReplyDeleteYour post made me cry. Those are exactly the same things I miss!! I was also thinking about how she "helped" us get dresses and shoes for the funeral. : ) I know she is watching. So when are we going to Disneyland? One of these years...maybe after Spencer gets home from his mission but before Jacob leaves on his. : )
ReplyDeleteThis was really sweet. I love all your memories. So dear and tender, and you can tell it is all still so fresh. Your mom sounds amazing.
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