The problem with plans...

You know what they say about well made plans . . .

We thought we'd looked at all angles and appeared to have a safe little window of time to get away and have some fun. We were 180 miles from home, about 20 miles short of our destination, when we got that dreaded phone call that my m-i-l had passed away early Saturday morning.

We decided to continue on to our friend's home, rest a bit, eat something and then head home to repack the car and begin driving West in the morning. As it turned out, after a few phone calls and discussions, it was determined there would be no service in Nebraska and those family members would come East instead. (The ultimate plan has always been to bury her in Baltimore alongside my f-i-l. They were together in life for over 50 years.) We ate, rested and made many phone calls. (How did we ever survive without cell phones and unlimited long distance?) Finally, we did spend the night before driving the 200 miles home on Sunday morning.

We were comforted to be in the company of some of our closest friends who dumped all plans and allowed us to direct the flow of the time we were there. It was definitely not the weekend we'd planned. We thank them from the bottoms of our hearts for their hugs and support. Upon our arrival at home, we were again enveloped by the love and support of our next door neighbors (again, some of our closest friends).

Although it is hard to deal with her loss, we are comforted to know she is no longer suffering. It's been a very long tough haul. The last few weeks have been extremely hard for all concerned. We are glad we did have the opportunity in that time to be there with her, to squeeze in some last hugs, even a few laughs at times when she was awake and alert, and to just sit and hold hands for a while. We know she was at peace and ready to move on.

Today, we are once again in a holding position while travel plans are completed before all other details can be put together.