Family Over Everything

This is my first post in almost two weeks.  My brief hiatus was due to me needing to be completely present with my family during these past couple of weeks.  My family has experienced the death of one and the extreme illness of another both within days of each other.

Emotionally, I’m spent and have been relying on constant prayer and talks with God just to keep it together for my tiny audience members aka my three boys.  I’ve learned that my children take their cue from me, their mother, and so I am sometimes not afforded the opportunity to just cry it out.  Well, at least not in front of them.

My oldest two boys have experienced the death of my grandfather and they took it extremely hard.  My grandfather moved in with my mother after his dementia had gotten worse and shortly after that, I moved back home because I was divorcing my husband.  My boys, 2 and 4 years old at the time, became really attached to my grandfather and his death was their first time they had to deal with seeing someone everyday to not seeing them any longer.

We are currently dealing with my grandmother’s illness, and having to accept God’s will for her life as well as all of our lives.  However, I have to take my hat off to my family specifically, my grandmother’s grands and great-grands, that stepped up to the plate and were hands on throughout the entire time she was in the hospital.  From dealing with the doctors and nurses, to ensuring that she came home with everything she needs to be comfortable.

It’s not often the matriarch of a family can say that she has four generations ready and willing to cater to her every need just so that she knows every ounce of love that she’s poured into our family didn’t go unnoticed or unappreciated.

My grandmother made sure that we always had a place to live, food to eat, money in our pockets, a car to drive, the opportunity to go to college, clothes on our backs, a chaperone for a school trip, a babysitter, and most of all someone to spoil all our children.

So if you’re ever able to repay the debt that you owe to someone who has given you so much in your life, never hesitate to act on the opportunity.  My cousins that are dealing with the death of their father, were able to repay him before he passed for the good life he provided for them.  That in itself is a blessing.

Family is such a good thing.  We needed each other and will continue to need each other.  I’m just grateful that God saw fit to give me my band of misfits, immediate and extended family included.