Day 114 -- Friends, family, and formalities

Friends and family are coming to us in our time of waiting.  As God has promised, in our weakness he is strong, and he uses his earthy ambassadors that he knows we need to bring his love and hugs to us in a tangible way.  That started with Christina at the Haskell Funeral Home.  She is such a sweet lady and helped us through all the information and choices needed to honor dad--without a hang dog pitiful attitude which helped us get through what I'm sure could have been an awful experience.  That has helped us take our mind of that and focus more on Daddy.  Mother's best friend Evelyn comes and goes as one of the family, and ladies from her church have been by.  Then my long time friends Judi Chapman, Patsy Blakley and Pam Gibson came to the house bearing gifts of food and friendship.  As the day progressed Aunt Peggy and Stormy, Philip, Bill, Jodi and Mandi got here to make the circle almost complete--if only we could have Cody and Cassie with us.  

Daddy continues to teach us in his quiet way as he always has--this time the lessons are about dying and finishing his earthly race strong.  His life lessons are ingrained in us as his children and grandchildren and even great-grandchildren--and this last lesson is the hardest of all, but just as much needed as all the others.  Life means death for all of us in this fallen world, and we don't get many lessons on the latter.  Hospice is also a big help to us in learning about dying, and we appreciate them so much.