We were so excited to go home and be with Michael for Christmas! To actually spend Christmas with him...it's been too long. I did, however, feel guilty for leaving Daddy alone at Christmas and was calling or texting him every day we were gone. I had left him presents to unwrap on Christmas day.
We had booked a room to rent for the first few days as after that, Sara would be gone and we could then stay at Mike and Sara's and use their spare room. The place we stayed was cozy and it was pretty cheap. We enjoyed time with Michael, Sara, a few friends and of course Tim's family. We did Christmas early for Sara as she was leaving to go to her family's place. That was really special. The other special thing that happened was that Michael actually went to Christmas Eve service with us at Covenant and he dressed up. I knew he didn't want to, but he did it because I wanted him to. That's really all I wanted so he did. That made my heart smile so much.
We went to Rob and Christy's for Christmas lunch I think. I don't remember exact days now. Anyway, Christmas evening we were at Mike's watching TV and I happened to go in our room and check my phone. I had a voicemail from Dad. It broke my heart. He was crying and asking if we could try and come home early. I couldn't tell whether he was saying Ann's is dying or she died. I had to go into the living room to have the guys turn the volume off. I was trembling. Hearing Daddy so heartbroken was terrible. I called him right back and she had already passed.
I had talked to him that morning and he didn't mention anything about her not doing well or anything. Throughout the day she started having BMs and vomiting. Dad called the hospice nurse and Nita came out. She was sort of throwing up really dark blood or ? Nita at one point had talked to the doctor and a pharmacist was going to bring some medicine out for her, but by that time, the nurse knew it wasn't going to help. The worst part for Dad is that she kept saying, "Help me. Help me." She knew something was wrong, but there was really nothing they could do. Nita stayed in there with Ann holding her hand and talking to her until Ann passed away. She stayed here with Dad until after the coroner came and took her body. We had booked a flight for early the next morning and we were back home by 1 p.m.
It's been so hard seeing how brokenhearted Dad is. Tim and I jumped in and took care a lot of the details for her memorial service. Dad picked out her urn. Tim did the memorial program and we had one of Dad's favorite pictures of her blown up into two large prints for the service which are now hanging in the living room and in dad's bedroom. The family flew and drove in from all over. The service was really nice and I wrote something to speak at it. Dad was really pleased with how things turned out. Still, it's his second spouse to lose.
Dad's been staying busy. He's still bowling 2x a week. He's now going to the Wellness Center 2x a week and still going to his Choctaw seniors luncheon. He's still going to church and is interested in getting back into his Disaster Relief work. He's served at things for the seniors a few times and has done some singing with them at funerals and such. Mostly he's been busy getting the trailer ready for a 6-week trip he's planning. He's going to be going West to see relatives and friends, including Tony and meet his granddaughters, Jemma and Sadie. He's looking forward to it. It's part of his grieving/healing journey.
We've had Tim's birthday, but we've really tried to stick closer to home, trying to be available for Dad and not leave him alone too much. We had our 18th anniversary. Tim rented the cabin that we love in Shawnee and we went there for 2 days. Valentine's Day came and went. I don't really remember much about it. We probably didn't do much lol.
The thing Tim wants me to write down is my birthday. My 47th birthday was just 3/26. It was a Sunday so we couldn't do anything that day, but Tim had bought a tent and some other camping gear and we went to Lake Texoma Friday and part of Saturday. It was supposed to be good weather. Humph! Thankfully we packed jackets and sweatshirts, etc. Tim had bought an extra sleeping bag and had borrowed one from the church. Thank goodness!!!
So we went out to Catfish Bay to a point. We found a nice area and set up our tent. Things are going great. The tent went up quickly. The air mattress filled up super quick. This is good. It's a little chilly but not bad. Tim cooked up some hotdogs and chili and we had some chips, water and/or Dr. P. We couldn't get the chili very hot but we didn't care. We tried to fish a little bit until it got too dark. We went into the tent and played some Uno. It was fun.
It started getting a bit windier but we didn't think much about it. We had put our food up in my car to keep critters away. Tim practiced his message in the car while I tried to sleep.
Having to use the bathroom was an adventure. It wasn't too far away but far enough. Thank goodness Tim brought flashlights as there were no lights in there. Going to the bathroom there was funny. Tim said everything dropped into the pit of Hell LOL. Sitting on the toilet with the wind blowing mysteriously across your bum was a bit unnerving. HAHA. Where was that coming from???
So we get back in the tent and try to sleep. Mind you, it's our first time camping in 15 years. Tim was on high alert with every sound he heard, which, with all of the wind blowing, there were a lot of sounds. The ping, ping, ping, ping of the zippers clanking on the sleeping bag from the wind. The trains that went by all night. The wind that sounded like we were in the midst of a tornado. The geese that seemed to camp outside of our tent door in the wee morning hours. The boats that were unloading into the lake very early for the fishing tournament we had no idea was going on. In the midst of the very noisy, scary, windy night, the tent collapsed on my side. Tim had to run out in his underwear to fix the tent while I'm inside holding it up. The whole night was comical but we didn't get much sleep. We did, at one point look out the tent door and look at how awesome the sky looked and all of the stars :-) We serve such a majestic God!
We wake up fairly early (from said boats, geese, etc.) and Tim fixes us some eggs, sausage and toast. It was wonderful. The only problem we found was that in the middle of the night, a mouse who apparently lives in my car (again), found our bread and helped himself to several pieces. Sooooo...I took those down to feed to the geese. After breakfast we ended up taking a nap. It was supposed to be warm by 10 I think with clear skies, but it was cold and cloudy and rained off and on. I took my nap fully dressed WITH my heavy jacket on under the covers. Tim woke up before I did. I slept the sleep of the dead. Since it was still cold when we woke up, we decided to just start cleaning up and go home. By the time we finished cleaning and packing everything up, of course the skies cleared up and it warmed up...so we fished....or rather we attempted to feed the fish but they weren't having any of it. So...we went home. Hopefully we will attempt this again. It was a new adventure to say the least. I'm thankful to have had another birthday to spend with my love.
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