A Life Well Lived
As we pulled into the driveway, hearts a little heavy, we took a breath in for strength and energy to push through the afternoon and days ahead.
We walked inside, things were just as they always were.
Chair here.
Glasses there.
Remote perched behind that.
Reminders of the past few months were also present. Medicine bottles lined the kitchen table, towels on the ready.
We looked over the list of things to do given by the funeral home. Some went to look for insurance papers. Others went to the fridge for a snack.
I went downstairs on the hunt for an obituary photo.
Several years ago, Raymond and I had spent a Sunday afternoon sorting and organizing photos with his parents. While the photos seemed to keep coming and we never made it to the end, we made a huge dent in a project that most put off.
The ziploc bags were right where we had left them.
Grant
Stowe
Raymond
Joshua
Vacations
All the familiar categories that we came up with, still organized and ready for walk down memory lane.
I brought up small bits of photos at a time; we laughed at the haircuts and the facial expressions, we oohed and aahed over the glamour of women, and we settled on a photo that would be just right for the paper.
Relieved that we had invested an afternoon years ago to sort, organize, and record the memories and the stories of his parents. Realizing that if the stories aren’t recorded on paper but only in memory that the risk of losing it forever hangs in the balance.
It’s been a blur of a few weeks for Raymond. Losing his dad wasn’t something he could ever fully prepare for but something he most certainly hoped to put off for a longer time to come. The logistics and the emotions are overwhelming, all the while days feel like minutes.
We are in full preservation mode of his dad and his heritage with family trees sketched, obituaries laminated, and memory quilts to design.
If you have ever lost a loved one then you know the whirlwind I’m talking about.
My hope is that we all prioritize preservation and pull out those photos, regardless of how many and how messy.
I know we were thrilled that it had been done when we found ourselves in a time that we certainly didn’t want to organize but just relish the legacy.
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