Grieving but Blessed

The grieving process is never an easy one. Whether you are saying goodbye to a dear, immediate family member or to someone that you may not have been all that close to, but to someone who has touched your life in one way or another, it’s a process that no one should have to experience alone. It’s painful. It’s shocking. It’s world changing. It’s emotion overload. In exactly 1 year’s time, my family has had to grieve after the loss of my Papa and now my sweet Mama. Fortunately, we’re not alone. Fortunately, we have each other and an amazing network of friends to hold our hands, to dry our tears, to listen, and to just BE there. What I am feeling thankful for in such a sad time, though, is that it didn’t take me now to realize what an incredible support system that we do have.

I am so thankful and blessed to have been born into and raised by such a special, loving, close, and unique group of people. My life has been filled with meaningful, happy, and positive experiences and memories – all of which make me smile to think about in a time like this. If you’ve spent any amount of time with my family, you know exactly how special they are. When a family friend or even a colleague that has never even met my family says to me, “your family is so strong” or “your mom thinks of everything” or “your parents are something special”, it’s one of the best feelings in the world. My point of telling you this . . . I know that as hard as these next few days will be that we WILL be okay, because we have each other AND an amazing network of people who love us as much as we love them. I know that at times it’s hard to remember how many amazingly good people that there are in this world of ours. Lucky for me, my life is FILLED with them.

So now that I’m finally home in Altoona, getting to surround myself with all of the amazing people that fill my life, my heart aches as the reality and finality of saying goodbye sinks in. But my heart finds a way to smile as I think about all of the happy memories that I have of my grandparents and I wanted to write a few down. . . .

Some of my fondest memories include… sick days at mama’s being filled with a whole lot of love and just as much Bob Barker – eating endless amounts of cookies and cream ice cream – hiding from my pap under the comforter of their GIANT water bed – my “a little bit of coffee with my cream” comes from learning from my mama to always “make my tea pretty”:) – fried bread . making it AND eating it with plentiful amounts of butter on top – eating ham and cheese sandwiches on the way to the races to cheer on my pap – burnt peanut butter toast dipped in our tea:) – my first mto that was cut into bite sized pieces – mountain pies at the campground and getting a Frosty from Wendy’s EVERY time on the way home – easter egg hunts in their backyard <3 – papa and his puzzles 🙂 – mama never letting us leave the house without telling us that she loved us and papa never saying goodbye until he told us to be careful – and a whole lot more memories that bring a smile to my face <3 I already miss both of my grandparents so much, but I know that they’re together again and I’m thankful to have been blessed to have them in my life. Rest peacefully, now, Mama and Papa. We will miss you dearly and always and can’t wait to be with you again.

Thank you to each and every one of you that make up the amazing network of people in my life who have offered love and support to my family and me year after year. We love you so much and are so glad to have you all in our lives <3

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