Friday, May 30, 2014

Betweenness

A long time since my last post. A lot has happened. A lot has yet to happen.

First, the sadness. On May 15th, my father died. It is also my mother's birthday that day, and although grieving is deep, she also chose to look at his death as a gift. Dad had not had an easy time of it for the past five years, and particularly in the past few months.

On May 14th, my parents' fourth great-grandchild was born, Everett Eugene (named Eugene after my father). Life is.

I was sick for most of the past five months, but my days of illness are fewer and I was able to visit with Dad before he died. I was home for about ten days in all, holding down the home fort so Mom could spend the time with Dad. I was eventually in charge of collecting photos for the funeral home slide show and a few boards of photos Mom put together. This was made much easier by all the work my brother Kelly put in scanning family photos a few years ago.

In late January, Oscar lost his job. There had been layoffs, so it was not totally unexpected but it was still a blow. He has been steadily looking for work as well as using the time to keep pursuing a bachelor's degree.
This past week, he was offered a five-week contract for a much lower rate of pay, involving three hours of travel time each day. He starts in about 10 days. This sounds kind of bad, but it has an incandescent silver lining. The contract is with Dell computers. Once he is approved and works this contract, he will more than likely be tapped for other contracts, eventually some longer termed, and eventually, one may come that is closer to family. Especially after losing Dad, we want to live closer to family. The visitation and funeral brought cousins, aunts and uncles I had not seen for decades. I hope when we eventually move, it will make seeing them more often possible.

Our lease is up in July, we will change to month-to-month to facilitate a move when that becomes logical. I will be packing anything that is not a common-use item beginning next week.
I am designing again, and writing reviews again. Grief still comes in waves, but between times I feel more connected to what is important in life.

Next week (about 8 days from now) I have a niece getting married. Life is.


(note, I am aware of the use of 'betweenness' as a mathematical/geometrical idea, but a looser definition seemed to sum up this time of my life)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've been missing you and wondering what was going on. So sorry for everything. I'm thinking of you. Stay strong...

Kym said...

I think "betweenness" is a perfect term. I'm sorry for the tough things you've had to endure over the last months, and especially the loss of your father. I'll be keeping you and Oscar in my thoughts.

You're right. Life is.

XO

AlisonH said...

I'm so sorry for your loss, so glad for your new joys, and glad you're feeling better than you were. So glad your family is dear to you--what a great blessing.

And best wishes to Oscar with his work.

Claudia said...

So sorry for your loss... Hope things get better.