Purpose…

There are occurrences in life that people look back on and wonder if God/Fate/Karma/(insert choice of deity here) had a hand in arranging. That you were meant to be in a specific place at a specific time because something was going to happen that will turn your life upside down.

Grandma has had several different health problems in the last few years and in the past few months there was one issue that has gone undiagnosed. Doctors were stumped and treating the symptoms to the best of their ability but not able to diagnosis the underlying cause. Because of this momma wanted to go up to upstate New York from Florida to help grandma around her house and to give her company.

Since where grandma lives is a bit remote, planning a trip up is not easy, typically requiring six hours of flying (with layovers) and a four hour car ride. Thankfully, the last time grandma had visited Florida, she left a small promotional item for a nearby New York airport. This little object happened to be left near my mom’s desk and gave mom an idea to see if there was a small airline that serviced the area. Unfortunately, flights that are not booked well in advance, are quite expensive so mom had to delay her trip up by a ten days.

Yesterday was the day that momma arrived in the small hamlet where she grew up and got to her childhood home around 4 pm. She spent the evening with grandma, my uncle and his girlfriend. She helped my grandma putter around the house, the house that my grandmother was born and that my mother was raised. Momma slept in her childhood room, glad to be able to see her mother. Grandma was in good spirits, they had a great conversation about life and what they would do during mom’s visit.

When mom got up this morning, she went to start the coffee and was concerned that grandma hadn’t gotten up as well since they are both habitually early morning risers. But grandma wasn’t there anymore. Her body was but the spirit wasn’t.

It was time for grandma to move on from this world, she’d gotten to spend a perfect evening with people that loved her – especially her only daughter – doing things that she loved and dying the way that she wanted, in her home.

There was a reason that mom wasn’t supposed to get to grandma’s earlier. There was a reason for her being able to fly in relatively close, so that she could spend that last evening with her mom. And being there when the event we unexpectedly expected happened.

I have many fond memories of my grandma that fill my heart every time I think of her. My selfish regrets are that the last time I saw her was in February of 2008 and my last phone call was several months back. I thought that she’d be immortal, it seemed no matter how many health scares we had because she’d inevitably bounce back. Unfortunately, my flawed logic didn’t come to fruition.

I’ll miss you Grandma. I love you.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 at 6:16 pm and is filed under Pleas of Desperation, The unknown, family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.