A Year of Changes

It's a strange time. I look back on this year and realize how much has happened. So far this year:

My mother-in-law died. That was something of a relief. She hated her body, she couldn't care for herself anymore, and she regularly was hospitalized. She suffered from mental illness and had alienated my husband. Her absence left a hole, but we weren't sorrowful.

My husband was in a car wreck. The road was icy, and another car appeared from nowhere. He skidded, and was steering into the turn when his airbag exploded. That forced his hands off the steering wheel and he lost control of the truck. He knew he was going to die, but cheated death. The truck survived too, though the front end needed replacing.

My mother had vivid dreams, so real she would sleepwalk. One night she was sleepwalking in the garage and fell. My sister rushed her to the hospital, and she died there two days later. The day before the fall Mum celebrated her ninety-third birthday. I miss her.

I was about to fly out to see her in Oregon, but wound up traveling to Massachusetts for her wake and funeral. Mum's wake was on my birthday. I didn't really mind--- the day of the funeral would have been upsetting, but not the wake. The funeral home set a world's record for the number of things they screwed up. Anything done on the church's end was fine. Thank God for that.

The day we drove back, we left early because my sister-in-law needed rescuing again. She is mentally ill and addicted to alcohol. I refuse to call her an alcoholic. No, she's a stinking drunk. She was having seizures, unemployed, and living in a slum. She hadn't showered or washed in any way and she reeked. My husband had to race back to Pennsylvania, rent a car trailer, and return to Massachusetts at four a.m. to collect her. He decided that was the end. No more rescuing her. Several weeks later, her stepmother called her on the drinking, and my sister-in-law bolted from the house. Her final bridge burned that night. Again, thank God; she was shaving years away from my father-in-law and his wife.

I visited all three of my sisters this summer. That was new, since we generally see each other at separate times, not the Gathering of the Girls. Wonderful, but I am different enough from them that it became uncomfortable. Listening to two of them dissect other siblings lives and families grew wearying, and I knew they would do the same to me. Our worldviews are unalike. My life takes me places they can't comprehend. I love them, I'm happy I went out, and I needed to come home.

My older son graduated high school in June. My younger one started his first job, received his license, and is a Senior in high school. I have no idea how that happened.

My husband had injections in his spine to reduce the horrible pain in his back, and now is 75% better. Oh, and he found, quite by accident, a distant cousin. They work together sometimes and became friends. They realized that their great-grandfather's were brothers. Strange. A good thing, but strange.

This year brought so many life changes, and so many beginnings and endings. I'm amazed to realize how well everything worked out. I want to be closer to God, and this year demonstrates how HE supported me through all these things. Wow. Maybe I need to connect the dots more in my life, instead of fretting about things I can't control. Pay more attention to the present, and take it for the beautiful and glorious time that it is.