Quarantine Diary, Entry #6

A quarantine birthday has come and gone.  I'm 48 years old, and who knew it would happen in chaos like this??!?!  Andrew made sure I had a lovely day.  I got 2 dozen roses, and he baked me a cake.  My big present will be here this week sometime... I'm getting a birdbath!  We have the perfect place for one in our yard, and that's what I wanted.  Our yard is looking really beautiful.  We got our annuals in, and everything is so green.  The lilacs are fully out, and even though it's been chilly, spring is definitely here.

I've still been transferring VHS tapes to digital, and it gave me a bit of an epiphany.  My mom remarried, after being single for 15 years, in 1995.  She got married on May 27th of that year, and none of us knew that she'd be dead by August 18th of that same year.  I transferred the VHS of her wedding and reception this week.  It's a tape that I honestly avoid watching because it makes me so sad.  But, this time, I watched a lot of it without getting upset at all.  First time.  During the reception, my mom and Mike went around to everyone in attendance and introduced them to the group.  This was a lot of people!  But, it was so cool to hear how that person knew my mom or Mike or both.  Here's where the epiphany happens... In that room on May 27th, every person in attendance got to hear exactly how they were special to my mom.  How many of us will be able to say that in the final months of our lives, we have told the people dear to us just what they meant to us and why they were important to us?  What a blessing that day was for everyone in the room, and for my mom too.  I guess the lesson is that we don't know when our last days will be, but maybe it's good to let those around us know that we love them and that they've influenced our lives in unique, meaningful ways.

Hang in there, everyone.