Monday, August 24, 2015

Bittersweet holiday number 1

As I have contemplated a life without my father, one of the things I personally have not been looking forward to is holidays.  As wonderful as Christmas is, for example, I can envision that it is during these occasions that one can especially feel the absence of the dearly departed loved one.  Today is the first holiday for the Bauer family.  Today is Mom and Dad’s wedding anniversary.  Because of this, this is obviously a rather hard day.

A friend recently shared a fitting statement with me.  He explained that he came up with this phrase many years ago, as he walked through death and loss in his life.  He said, “Smile while you cry.”  That’s what I want to do.  In fact, I asked him if I could use that statement, and he agreed.  Let me repeat it: “Smile while you cry.”  Smile as you look back and think of the wonderful memories, (and smile at how Dad is enjoying the incredible wonders of Heaven).  But obviously there are numerous tears as well.

In an attempt to “smile while I cry” I want to focus on the wonderful marriage that my parents enjoyed.  In fact, last year, I devoted a blog to the fact that it was my parent’s 40th anniversary.  Mom and Dad were able to have many anniversary celebrations.  Not only this, they were also able to have decades and decades of wedded bliss together.  They were very much in love.  They had a strong, stable marriage that many couples only dream of having.  In fact – as I said in my blog this time last year – their marriage was an inspiration not only to me, but also to many others as well.

Conversely, as I’ve already said, now that the Bauer family is walking this road of loss, today is a bittersweet day.  Please continue to pray for my mom.  This whole ordeal has been hard on all of us, but I think it affects her the most.  She recently said that the days are not getting easier, they are getting harder.  I imagine that this day will be an especially difficult day for her.

Kevin

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