Aimee’s Random Thoughts: death & cats

11 December 2006

death & cats

Mom has a consult at the James Center in Columbus today at 2:45. Prayers are most appreciated! This appointment is to determine the next step in treatment for her. The way she understands it, they will either do a specialized kind of radiation or another form of chemo. I'll let you know.

When I talked with Mom yesterday she was feeling upbeat and good. She was fixing a big dinner (spareribs, potatoes, etc...) for her friend Josh. Josh works maintenance at the apartment complex Mom manages and he is going to pet-sit for her while she & Dad are in Columbus today.
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I took the boys & a few of their friends to the park yesterday. That was fun. After playing for a while we followed a path that leads to a cemetery. The older kids were fascinated with reading the tombstones and figuring out how long people had lived. They got excited when they would find someone marked "army" or "minister" or when they would find someone with a familiar name. They had a great time.

It's been a long time since I've been in a cemetery. One of the things that struck me as I walked through (following Eli) was the sheer number of stories represented there. All those people—all their stories. How many of those stories are still remembered? Sometimes it's easy to tell the stories that are fresh in people's minds. Those graves are decorated to the hilt. There were grave markers that were landscaped, there were ones that had all kinds of little knick-knacks all around, fresh flowers, plastic flowers, hanging baskets, gift baskets, you name it. Those people are remembered. They are thought of and their stories are told or thought about frequently.

Other tombstones are undecorated & there is no outer clue that tells whether their stories are remembered. Now, sometimes, a bit of the story is on the tombstone: beloved teacher at ATS, missionary to India for 40 years, etc... But, it is just such a tiny part of their story. One tombstone in particular really stood out to me. There were three names: mother, father, & son. The mother & father were both born in the mid 1880'ss. Their son was born in 1921, the same year the father died. The mother lived until 1970, but the son died in 1950. I wonder if the father ever got to hold his son. I wonder how the mother dealt with her grief. Her story reminds me of a couple Bryan & I met in our Bradley class when we were pregnant with Xavier. They had been married less than a year & were expecting their first child. Within a few weeks of finding out they were pregnant, the husband was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. He died about a month before the baby was due. She went into labor at the funeral, but she didn't tell anyone because she didn't want the focus to be shifted away from her husband. The baby was born the next day without any complications and was given the name that his dad picked for him. We lost touch with her after that. But, I think about her often and wonder how she is doing. I wonder how the Mom buried in the cemetery handled life. Had she learned to trust and rest in God? Or did she spend her life bitter at her circumstances? Did she every remarry? Did she close off her heart to protect it from being hurt ever again?

I wonder what my story will be when I come to the end of my life here on earth. Will I have learned to trust & rest in God? Or will I let anger and bitterness be the rule of my life? We all have the opportunity to write our life's story. Each day, in each moment, we have the choice of what our life will be.
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Since we're on a death theme here, I have to share a postcard we received in the mail this weekend. It's addressed to Bruno, our cat and it's from our cat groomer. It reads: "There is no time more fitting to say thank you & to wish you peace, happiness & dreams come true." Very nice. The irony? Bruno was put to sleep a couple of months ago.
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I hope all of you are having a wonderful, peace-filled day.

Labels: God, life of a mom, My Mom

posted by Aimee @ 4:57 AM

1 Comments:

At December 11, 2006 3:52 PM, Anonymous said…

Life and death...death and life...in and out...everything interconnected..hope you have a good day Amiee..