The Passing of a Brave Soul

 

                Like a star that has burned too bright for too long, my mother finally lost her battle with Alzheimer’s this past year.  Her passing has been difficult for me, but gladly my father is doing extremely well after losing his lifelong partner.  With each days chores and the process of closing the final chapter of my mother’s life to keep him busy, I think my father will be okay. Each momento we go through is a teardrop that falls, a laugh that is heard, a memory that is shared, or a puzzled thought of why on earth? I know this will be a long process, as my father needs to take it at his own pace.

                My own memories of my mother are of a lady that was scared of everything. She could not swim, was scared of heights, and anything that crawled. Yet this lady who screamed “ Let us out of the Jeep so we can walk”, every  time dad drove on the side of a hill, still went everywhere with my dad. They traveled the world like a couple of National Geographic explores to places I will only dream of. With her passing I have come to realize that she was the bravest person I will ever know. As fearful as she was, she still went with my dad on his adventures to see the world. From shooting rapids in the Grand Canyon to the Swiss Alps. I learned something from this that is very important, if you’re fearful of something, do it anyway. You only have one life and you need to fill it with as many memories as you can.

                I can’t help but think of the things that I should have said long ago, and the things I do not want to let go by in my own life. The profound reflection on my own life, the regret of what I think I should have done with my own family and the realization that what I thought was important only to realize that it wasn’t as important as spending time together. The long 12 hour days I worked to buy them things I did not have when I was young, cannot replace the time I could have spent with them. The memories would have lasted far longer than the things I bought them. In the end all the things we collect through our lives will end up in some thrift store, and I personally think that thrift store should have a sign out front that says” memories for sale”.

                In closing I ask this one final question; how did the material things in life become more important than the things that really matter, if memories are the only thing that we get to take with us when we are gone?