New Beginning

As you can see I haven't posted for a long time. I started this blog while employed at Bay County Public Library. Now I want to start blogging seriously.
I retired on Jan 2, 2010 and you'd think at 74 I'd have been prepared. Not so. The transition from working fulltime to not has been traumatic. More about that later.

Our biggest news right now is that Mother died January 25 surrounded by family and friends and caregivers at Panama City Nursing Home. She was 96 years old. She had not been well for some months, and had stopped talking to me very often or eating very much.

God is so Good. When Nicole called on Wednesday morning to say I'd probably need to come in, I called Family, including Cousin Nancy Jinks and I proceeded to talk to Mother . She was very very thin, and was restless, but I could n't be sure she was hearing me. I hugged her and kissed her on her lips --and she kissed me back! She was hearing and feeling our loving presence. We all were able to say goodbye and tell her how much we love her.
Besides me, there was Sox and Penny, Kaitlin and Kristain and Haylee, Laura, Jesse and Allen Wayne, Nancy, Ron, Judy, Teresa, Elizabeth, Donna, and her friends/caregivers who took exceptionnally good care of her for the past four years. Her great great grandchildren hugged her and kissed her goodbye.
There is a song "I Can Only Imagine" that expresses my feelings. I'm imagining the reunion in Heaven when her beloved Stuart, her son Arthur, granddaughter Melissa, and siblings Burrus, Grayce, Noah, Joyce, Kade, and all the other family members who have gone before, gathered to welcome her.
Granpa Pratt told me when I was a little girl that death is just a part of life-- you simply go into another room where all those who've passed on welcome you Home. Don't know if this is good theology, but but I like it.

granann 11:59 (noon) Friday Feb 10, 2012