The Price of Love is Grief

Late summer is often a whirlwind of activity here on The Slice.  This year is no different in that regard.  However, it is very different in a couple of ways.

The new job is going okay.  I am slowly adjusting to the change in schedule although it is troublesome.  I enjoy the contact with the patients and being a comfort to them within the scope of my practice.  However, I find myself losing interest in school.  I'm no longer certain I will continue my nursing studies in January.  Things have changed around me and within me.  While I do enjoy my work at the hospital, I find I miss my work at the lab more and more every day.  I often wonder if I shouldn't move on to something I've never done before.  A true fresh start.

My Mom died a month ago.  August 19 to be exact.  I was sitting at my computer reading my email and I thought I heard her say my name right next to my ear.  About 30 minutes later, I got the call that she was gone.  She was very, very sick and her passing is a blessing for her and all of us who knew and loved her.  I feel her absence every day.  She was my first best friend and my lifelong confidant and supporter.  She taught me to take care of myself.  She taught me how to survive no matter what.  Those lessons have been well used these last weeks.

A month later I can still hardly believe she's gone.  Sometimes I am able to fool myself into thinking she's still living there in her little house in the mountains...just a phone call away.

Many folks have tried to give me comfort by sharing that she isn't really gone and that one day we'll be together again.  I know they mean well and I appreciate it.  I think it unlikely for a couple of reasons.  First, I'm not convinced that the afterlife they tout even exists.  Second, if I'm wrong and there is an afterlife like they say there is, I most certainly will not be going to the good place.  My Mom was a good Baptist woman.  Her faith was strong and it served her well throughout her life.  Sometimes I wish I had that faith to lean on.

The only thing that can be said to be worse than losing a loved one like my Mom is dealing with the aftermath of her existence.  I spent a week alone in her home packing and sorting and cleaning in an attempt to prepare it for sale.  It was probably the worst week of my life and probably just as well I was on my own.

If you have children and you love them, do everything you can to make this process as easy as possible for them.  My Mom did and I have been frequently surprised by the things she thought of and did for me and my brother before she died.  I can only imagine how much more difficult it would have been had she been as lackadaisical about housework as I am.

I hear that time heals all wounds.  It makes me wonder if I have enough time left to heal the wounds this summer has left on me.

In between the new job and the trip to Colorado and the dealing with banks and Realtors and whatnot, my life has been percolating along.  I have been canning like a woman possessed and basically just trying to keep all my plates spinning.  I've been zapped with the most unholy seasonal allergies this year and yet I still keep going.

The Energizer Bunny has NOTHING on me.

Oh Boy am I Feeling It

I have a part time job in a nursing home.  Back in the day, I was a nursing assistant.  Before I became a 'chemist', I had intended to go to nursing school.  But the waiting list for the nursing program was long and my patience was short.  So, at the urging of my chemistry professor, I switched programs to laboratory science and never looked back.

Until recently I was pretty fine with that.

When the rumbling at work started about the downsizing, I started to think about nursing again and wondering where I would be if I had stayed the course and gotten that RN that I wanted in the beginning.  So, just out of curiosity, I took a nutrition class.  It happens to be a requirement for the nursing program. Well, now it looks like I'm going to be a nurse.  Not anytime soon, mind you.  I can't start the actual program until next year.  But I'm getting there.  My current Human Anatomy class has enough details and booby traps to keep my head spinning and my lips moving for months.  I can't wait for the Human Physiology class next term.  Oy.

In the meantime, since my job was ending, I landed a part time gig as a nursing assistant.  I am here to testify that this is not an easy transition to make.  I've spent the last 16 years at what amounts to a desk job getting fat and out of shape.  The first two shifts last weekend at that nursing home kicked my hiney but good.  Two days later, I'm still feeling it.

Oh boy am I feeling it.

It's not pain exactly...anymore.  But I was using muscles I haven't used in that particular way for a long time.  I don't remember it being that painful when I did the job before.  But it was sixteen years ago and a lot of water and gravy has gone under this bridge in that time.  Oh, and pie.  Mmmmm...pie.  It's harder than it seems it ought to be working on your feet for eight hours at a time.  I know I'll adjust.

But I am still feeling it.

Just so I don't stray too far from the real topic of my blog, here is a gratuitous shot of my black-eyed susans.  Aren't they pretty?  They come up in this spot every year as well as some other random spot.  Enjoy!