RIP to a loved one

Posted by liquilife on 11/09 at 02:04 PM
Filed under Miscellaneous

I have purposefully held off from writing about this until the time felt right. Well for some reason the time feels right. My step-dad passed away recently. It came rather suddenly and without a lot of preparation. I’ve known for years that he has had some serious heart problems but yet he went on with life anyways. His passing away is something I had thought about in the back of my mind for many years For some reason I thought just thinking about it would be enough to prepare for what seemed inevitable. That is until I got a call from my sister early on the morning of October 25th.

The phone rang at around 6am. My wife had already gotten up and was working in her office. She kindly awakened me and informed me I had missed a call. Finding it odd someone called me at 5am I checked my voicemail. It was my sister. John had passed away. She was crying. At that moment whatever plans I had for the day were forgotten about, even for the rest of the week. I stood by my wife just repeating “Oh my God”. I ran to the computer knowing my Mom would have tried to contact me via Instant Messenger. Sure enough, she had.

2006-10-25

Mom: 05:17:01
Robert are you there I have really bad news
Robbie: 05:17:27
Mom, I am here
Robbie: 05:17:32
please call me
Robbie: 05:17:39
i’m here to answer
Mom: 05:17:43
John died

Within 30 seconds I was able to conference in the entire family using Skype. A feat that we could not seem to pull off for the past 2 years. We shared our grief and consoled our Mother who was the most affected. During this conversation I was able to find out that he had passed away sometime during the night due to Congestive Heart Failure. It did not take long to all get our plans in working order to meet up with my Mother in Colville.

By the next morning the entire family was in Colville to stay with my Mother for as long as we needed to. We had all arrived in Colville coming from all directions of the State. There we stayed for a number of days. I’m not sure what to say from here except that it is sad how extreme circumstances is what can finally regroup a family. I wish so much that we could have all gotten together for a family reunion without extreme necessity. Regardless I feel vigilant that we can continue to strengthen our relationship as a family.

John never liked cats. My Mother always had a very severe weak spot for cats. We decided that we should go out and find a kitten to surprise our Mother with. We went out and did just that. Picked up a kitten and he started purring right away. That’s all we needed to hear to make the decision. Just to reaffirm his cuteness he licked my nose. Well, what good is a Kitten without the staples such as Cat Litter, Cat litter box, cat food and some catnip? Driving back to my Mothers a plan is hatched on how to present the kitty. My brother first present to my mom a bag of Cat Litter. I can only imagine the confused look on her face. The confused look quickly turned to one of absolute sheer shock and joy however when my wife and I came in with the kitten. She held that kitten with her eyes watering. I started fighting back the same tears. I don’t remember if I was able or not but I doubt it. We looked at the kitten she was holding and he had fell asleep with his head slung over her shoulder. It was just like a match made in heaven.

Life moves on, whether you want it to or not. My Mother is feeling stronger and stronger as each day passes. I will, however, be here to cheer her up anytime of the day or night. That is all for now. This is my sad story, one I knew I’d have to write before I wrote about anything else.