Tuesday, June 02, 2009

The day I met Cole

I've seen a few scrapbook pages along the way that chronicle a day in the life of someone and I thought it would be a good idea to do a page of the day I met my nephew so I decided to keep a short journal of the day to print out for the page.


9:00am


A week ago I awoke to an early morning phone call from Maria, one of the nurses at the Hospice Inn, telling me that my mom had passed away peacefully just 15 minutes after they had finished giving her a morning sponge bath as they did every morning. There was no indication that it would happen that fast and they didn’t have time to call and tell me to head over to be with mom but I am grateful that I spent time with her the day before and made my peace with her moving on to a better place. So much has happened to me in just one short week, a range of emotion that I have yet to fully grasp but as I sit on a train this morning I am full of joy because in just a few short hours I will be holding my newborn nephew (just 2 days old) in my arms and giving my sister and brother in law a hug to congratulate them on the birth of their son!!


Saturday I honored one of mom’s wishes and I gave her cherished porcelain dolls to my stepbrother so that his daughter can have them and they will also share the dolls with my other stepbrother’s daughter when they visit from Texas sometime in the near future. I know that mom wanted the girls to have her dolls and I promised her that I would make sure they knew how much she loved them. One doll in particular, Shea, meant a lot to me personally because my stepdad actually made it himself when he and mom took a class together and he won 2nd place in a contest with that doll. She is a beautiful doll with long strawberry blond hair and I know that mom will be smiling from heaven watching her granddaughters enjoy her prized dolls.


11:00am


I am in my comfy recliner style seat on the Amtrak train heading down to Virginia and should arrive at 3:25 this afternoon. I’ve got my laptop, my iPod, my book and my lunch…what more could I ask for? Oh yeah, I have my butt cushion, too. My physical therapist suggested that I get a special cushion to relieve the stress on my tailbone when I sit for long periods of time and it does help me so I take it with me in the car and I use it at my desk at home when I know I’ll be sitting for more than 10 minutes.


It is a beautiful sunny day out and I have a window seat and so far it’s pretty quiet in the car I am sitting in and I hope it continues to stay that way but I’m sure the train will fill up more as we go along, this train is actually going all the way to Miami so I’m sure it will be pretty full by the time I get to my stop to get off. This is the first time I’ve been on an Amtrak train in a very long time and I only remember that we had a screaming and crying kid in the seat next to us and we didn’t sleep much on that ride and Jim and I said we would never do it again, we traveled to Florida with Jesse and Robert when they were little so I would have to say it was about 20 years ago that we took that trip.


3:30pm


Finally arrived at my destination and Paul picked me up and I am on my way to meet my new nephew and I can’t wait!! I already love him but I know that holding him and seeing him in person will be even better!


3:45pm


Wow, what an amazing and beautiful gift God has given me!! Just when I felt that the grief of losing my mom would envelop me I see the face of my 2 day old nephew and I feel nothing but love and joy and renewed hope that I can move forward and be happy again. Cole is so precious and such a miracle that words fail me so I’ll just stop trying to come up with any appropriate ones.



11:00pm


Time to go to bed after spending the evening with my new nephew! He's so tiny and I wish I could spend more time with him because I know when I come back he'll be so much bigger compared to now but I am blessed that I am getting to spend these precious first few days of his life visiting. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

7 comments:

Laura said...

He IS an angel! LOVE the pictures!
I'm sitting here in tears again, but this time they are happy tears for you.

This was such a beautiful blog entry.....he is perfect!

Kelly said...

Oh wow, look how beautiful he is! Lots of gorgeous hair and wonderful skin...what a special blessing. Congratulations on your new nephew!! :)

June said...

Oh, Linda, he is beautiful (okay, he's too little to call handsome yet LOL)!

You write so well, thank you for sharing your day with us, and your precious nephew! ((hug))

Mary said...

He is so precious and beautiful Lin! Thanks for sharing the story of your journey to meet him.

paula said...

Awww! Linda he is so beautiful!! Congratulations!

West Melbourne JoJo said...

In reading the other comments, I say Cole is VERY handsome - but then again he comes from a beautiful family. Congratuations Nancy, and to you too, Linda. A happy time for your family!

I read in past blogs about the consequence of number 17, and especially the 7's in life. My birthday is the 17th (of October). For me, 17 has always been a very lucky number. My daughter, Jessica's home has an incredible sense of positive fung-shue (sp?) and when she first saw the house then noticed the address she knew she'd buy it because the address was 1717.
The loss of your mom leaves such a gap in all our souls. Whenever I'd get down, I'd give her a call and her zest for life and the love of family brought me back to my happy self. She'll never know how important she was to me. Maybe from heaven she smiles. I like to think so.

And so life goes on, it makes me think of the song from the group Live from their album 'Throwing Copper' and the song 'Lightning Crashes'. It tells of a baby born and how "the angel opens his eyes and the confusion sets in" and the passage of an old mother - "the angel closes her eyes and the life belongs to the baby down the hall". God bless your family!

Scrappy Gal said...

I love your day in the life post. It's very much like a fly on the wall for me. I could picture your entire day & how wonderful it was for you.