“The sky is especially beautiful,” I commented on a ride back home to my mother’s house in Virginia. “That’s because of the rain,” my mom responded. That conversation regarding the natural connection between a beautiful sky and rain basically sums up the last month of my life. In the words of Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock:
Well it seems to me that
Joy and pain are like sunshine and rain
Last month, I was in Starbucks after church getting my weekly frapp when I received a call from one of my sisters. “We have been trying to reach you all morning,” she said. “Mom had a heart attack early this morning.” After startling my fellow Starbucks customers with a loud, “What?!” I listened as my sister went on to explain that my mom had suffered from two heart attacks in the last 12 hours. Basically, my mom was out with my sister-in-law and had expressed that she was having some bad acid reflux symptoms. She just planned to go home and rest but my sister-in-law encourage her to go to the emergency room. Thank God that she did! It turned out that my mom had already had a mild attack and was on her way to having a major one at the hospital. The doctor said that if she my mom would have gone home and went to bed, then she would have never woken up again. (I always DID like my sister-in-law…)
I think that life tends to go in “seasons” and seems that is a season of my parents dealing with various health challenges. (My mom was already recovering from two surgeries earlier this year and my dad is currently undergoing a series of chemo treatments as a result of stomach cancer.)
“The beauty/sunshine”
Fortunately, I was able to spend a week in Virginia by myself while my mom was recovering. I was able to spend a lot of time with both my mom and my dad. (They are divorced but still good friends who check up on one another.) Reggie, the boys and I also just came back from Virginia yesterday. I went back for a happier reason – my niece’s wedding – this month.
We had an amazing time. My family is so much fun and we laughed a lot every single day of our trip. We had such a good time that one of my sons cried when it was time to leave. Meanwhile, the other one was trying to make a practical case for why we should move to Virginia. Most of all, I think that I was just more aware of how precious the time that we have with friends and family truly is…tomorrow really is not impressed.
It has also been on my heart to make sure that I have pictures with the kids and their grandparents. Since I tend to take a lot of pictures, I also had to make special mental notes to be a part of the pictures with my parents as well as my kids!
Mission accomplished! 🙂