I have been so out of touch for so long on here as far as anything personal, or writing my own posts.  Now that Mom is squared away in Heaven, I’m back to trying to get my own life and house and everything to some semblence of “order”. A lot gets left undone and I am so slow as it is, but I am trying to keep perspective and pray my way through in bite-sized chunks.

The last 19+ months were hard. I lost one parent in 2012 in a sudden fashion, and the other in a long drawn out slow decline. My Dad was ready to go. Mom had hoped to get better and stick around, but by the end, she was essentially bedbound and though her personality was intact and she was still very present as “herself”, her memory just seemed to leak away  over the year. If I wasn’t still so exhausted from having having been through it all with her, I’d tell you all that we went through, but sufficed to say, she tried to stay strong and do for herself as much as possible, but death prevails in the physical realm, and now she is on to the next and way better life!

I witnessed her struggle all the way, and having someone in hospice, you do your mourning in “real time” as they slowly disentigrate. It may have felt different if she had stayed in VA, but she didn’t.  (My parents moved back to WV when Dad retired, so I have long been used to the fact I couldn’t see her anytime I wanted. I brought her here to VA April 2022 so my brothers could help, but she wanted to go home and my older brother and his wife took her back.)

Mom’s and my relationship was challenging a lot of the time, but we loved one another 100%.

One good thing that came out of it all, is that I did finally really get my online selling going, (which I have been trying to do since 2015!)

When Mom got to the point I could not physically manage her care, we hired a companion/aid fo her.  To finance my portion of that expense, I sold all of my lifelong collection of jewelry. The vintage, the “cosume” the pieces I had made, my many sterling items, things I bought over the years, and even my couple of items that were gold, one was a bracelet I bought for myself as a 50th Birthday gift. (The only time I ever bought myself a Birthday gift), and a couple pairs of gold earrings my husband had given me. I was blessed to have some ladies donate jewelry they no longer wear, so once I had sold mine, I still had more to sell. I’m very grateful to these ladies. (You know who you are, thank you from the bottom of my heart.) Now that I have the hang of it, I plan to continue as a reseller on Mercari. I like it much better than eBay. I liked Etsy, but once I stopped selling on there, I guess Etsy deleted my seller account or else, I did and forgot doing so! When I tried to access it, it said my seller account didn’t exist. That’s how I ended up on Mercari. I have had a good experience there, (once I learned some things).

I really struggle with concentration, memory and low energy and have had YEARS of health issues, so it is a very big deal to have successfuly worked at something and that it enabled me to cover cost for Mom’s care. God sent us the exact specific hand picked aid, too!  Ya’ll, my Mom was persnickety and nearly impossible to please. God hand-picked Heather, and she’s part of the family now. God orchestrated it so I could do manageable work from home at a flexible pace to pay for someone else who cared for her like she was her own mother. That’s God!!! I continued to make the trip, often by train, but less frequently and without having to stay 2-3 weeks. Being her medical power of attorney, I still did a lot when I was home, dealing with insurance, and keeping up with med changes and ordering, calls to pharmacy, docs, etc.

It was a relief not to have to keep making that 5 hour trip every few weeks, and be away from home for weeks at a time, and it’s a relief that she is not suffering anymore. I’m happy for Mom that her burdens are off and she’s with Jesus and Dad and other family she has missed, but the sadness is there right along with that.

I will probably still be erratic in posting, but erratic in the way I used to be, (posting more, but no real “schedule”) as opposed to nothing but crickets for days on end.

Thanks for sticking with me ya’ll!

I figure Mom’s exit has spared her some rough times coming that are going to touch every single person on earth to one degree or another here very soon. Ya’ll ready to finish the race?

WFS Maranatha!