Hi All,
It’s been awhile since I was on here or posted and when I did it was under another Blonde name since I forgot my email/password….
Anyway, I had previously mentioned my mom was battling lung cancer and wanted to give an update since many of you were so great with advice and so nice with words of comfort and compassion. Well my mother ended up passing away the second week of March. She had taken a turn for the worse after Valentine’s Day to the point where she couldn’t even walk and it was very difficult for my father and I to watch her go through this. Her pain had gotten so bad that they admitted her to a local hospice house where her pain was managed with morphine for about a week until she left us. I think I’m still in shock and haven’t fully come to terms with her death yet, though every day it gets more and more real.
The hardest part besides losing her, has been the shift in the family dynamics. My mother was one of six and she and my dad had been married for almost 40 years, he’s been around longer than her youngest sister! While she was sick we saw her family more than all our 20-some years of living out of state and things got a bit dramatic. Her sisters were second-guessing and putting their $.02 in about my mother’s caretaking and treatment and going behind my dad’s back for social workers and other caretakers to come see her. It was out of love and concern, but not their place. They also would come down, interfere with my mother’s and mines relationship and would yell at me, slam doors, and curse right in front of her. This put a huge wedge between my aunts and I, especially when I called them out on it and even got to the point where I told them to get a hotel room because I would not be yelled at in my parents’ home. Though things have calmed down, I am heartbroken by the way her family has treated my dad. They are very odd and I can tell why my parents never wanted to move back to the area to be near them and it just hurts when my dad is the one reaching out and consoling them on losing a sister they never cared to visit before she was sick, when he just lost his best friend, wife, and whole life but doesn’t get as much as a phone call or email from them. This is just crushing.
But , back to my mom. She was a beautiful, smart woman who was dedicated to her family, faith and community and volunteered in church and school for over 20 years. She was an avid Talbots shopper and I’m still surprised to see they haven’t closed down yet from missing her shopping sprees and above all, she sure did love her QVC! We bonded over makeup and she would treat me to Beauty Bash tickets every year where we would do up the night before and stay in King of Prussia to do some serious shopping and eating, then spend the next day getting beautified J. Her favorite was the first year we went, when she got “flocked” by Nick Chavez (sp?), she LOVED telling that story. She posted on here as well and I don’t think she knew I did (since I outwardly joked about her QVC addiction but inwardly loved it just as much), but her username was Froid if anyone remembers her.
We knew when she was first diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer, that her odds were not good, and especially when there was nothing more the radiation or chemo would help, but through it all she never complained. She was the epitome of strength and grace and I am beyond proud, and very blessed, to be her daughter.
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