Back at the grind

Yesterday was, as I expected, a very hard and emotional day. We were not able to make the long journey in time for the visitation on Wednesday evening, but from all accounts, the family was so overwhelmed by visitors anyway. There was a one-hour line up for most of the evening.
We arrived about an hour before the funeral, and were able to spend some time with our friend's husband. He is, to say the least, devastated. 43 years is a very long time to have been married to one person and to have that person gone in just a blink of an eye... well, I just can not imagine how terrible and shell-shocked the entire family is.
Her youngest son did a eulogy... he wasn't able to write anything down, he said, and so he just spoke from the heart - until he couldn't do it any longer. The thing that got me the most was the ending - he said it what he was doing was hard, but he hadn't had the chance to say good-bye, and he felt doing that would give him the opportunity. I think that is how we all felt - we didn't get to say good-bye.
When I heard of her passing on Monday, my first thought was, "Did I hug her good-bye the last time I saw her?" I know I did - I always gave her a hug when we were parting. But still, if I had known that was the last hug I would have given her, it would have been longer. And much harder.
I'm going to miss you, Blinky. We all will.

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Tomorrow will be my 100th post. Since it will be Saturday, and I will have some time, I think I will do a photo journal tomorrow. I want to get some pictures of the boys playing out in the snow - they have started making a snow fort - and I really want to show my Singapore Connection - and anyone that doesn't live in this area of Ontario - what our snow is really like. (The pictures from the other day just don't give a full visual.)
It's so difficult getting a true feeling for the amount of snow without having people and objects in the picture to compare it to. And the funny thing is, my one friends that live about 3 hours north of here just laugh at me when I say we have a lot of snow. Again, it all a matter of perspective. If you live in the city, we have TONS of snow. North...a skiff...

Until then...