Yesterday and Today will be spent attending the Funeral, Mass and Memorial Service of the Husband of a very Dear long time Friend, he passed Christmas Eve and she called to tell me on Wednesday Night.
There really are no words to offer sufficient comfort at a time like this. The timing of the Passing is particularly difficult for everyone who suffered this loss... Christmas Eve...
This is an elderly couple with a very large extended Family, all of which had traveled to Arizona from all over the Country and State this year to spend time Celebrating the Joy of the Holidays together... instead they had to prepare for a Funeral and Memorial of their Loved One and experience Grief together.
Granted, when you reach a certain old age death is inevitable... and this Man had lived a very long and full Life, which will be Celebrated by his Friends and Family.
And yet my Heart goes out to my Friend, his Widow, our Families have known each other and been close since we first moved to Arizona in the early 1970's. This is a Woman I greatly admire the Strength and Faith of because she has gone through and overcome so much, even before this.
This is a Strong, Independant Woman who raised her six Children as a Divorced Single Parent without any help, and without even knowing how to drive.
Whose youngest Adult Child was the victim of a vicious assault that left her near dead and in a vegetative state... and even after the Doctors gave up... our Friend didn't. She nursed her Daughter back to health and helped her regain relatively high function and the ability to live independantly again... while also raising her Daughter's young Child to Adulthood.
Always Strong in Faith and with a cheerful, positive attitude... always willing to help others and uplift those who were going through the issues of Life, she really has been an Inspiration to me and a loyal Friend to our Family for almost 40 years now.
Yet even though she has been through and overcome so much in a Lifetime, that would have surely wrecked a less resilient and strong Soul, she told me that this was particularly difficult, because it was so final, she'd never had to do something like this before, bury a Husband... and during the Holidays no less!!!
The pain, loss and Grief was evident and tangible... and what do you say when there are no words?
Well... you don't have to say anything really... just Be There and Care with Sincerity and Love... and we will.
Dawn... The Bohemian