Norma in passing

As I type this, my mother-in-law, Mary’s mother lays dying. Mary is with her at her home in Florida, as is another of her daughters and a granddaughter and son-in-law. The family is well represented, as it has been these months as Norma’s children and their children visited, paid respects, conveyed their love and helped her through a process we all know but none of us really understands.

It is revealing of Norma as mother that each and all of her offspring has made a point of being part of her process of farewell.

There are tears, of course. Always, there are tears but there is also satisfaction in knowing that what could be done to help her has been done and by people who love her.

She's been mother to my wife, grandmother to my daughters and my friend, now of 30 years. And while we will be diminished by her passing, each and all of us were enriched by the time we had with her.

We all knew this day would come and that made it easier during the long denouement of her life. But today, it doesn’t help so much to say that she had a good run or that she knew she was loved, although those are both true enough.

Today is difficult because although we all knew this day would come, now the day has come.