Happy Birthday, Mom

Yesterday, 2 June, would have been my mom’s 75th birthday. My wife and I and my brother and his family did our best to pay our respects by taking my father to the cemetery to visit her grave. We followed that up by lunch at a nearby BBQ place that she loved her whole life.

I think that was a successful birthday.

Some families have plenty of time to prepare for loss. For us the fact that every had, thankfully, been healthy right up to the day mom didn’t wake up meant that we never really did.

We didn’t talk about death growing up. In fact it was a topic my parents mostly avoided even to the point of us not going to many funerals we should have. When it all changed so suddenly so many of our lives were rocked in ways none of us saw coming.

Spend the time you have while you can. My mom was never known to be sick, on 7 April, 2023 she just didn’t wake up and that was it. I wish I could’ve spent more time with her before that but we’re doing our best to be with our family now and going forward.

Happy Birthday, Mom. We all miss you.