The Longest Week
I have a story to tell, but I don’t know if I’m well enough to tell it. I’ve caught my husband’s cold it seems and that, on top of everything, has left me feeling very drained. So I’ll give you the information that you need to know about this week and why I won’t be writing again until next Monday.
On Saturday we got the worst call ever. My husband’s grandfather Mac died of a heart attack at the hospital where he was recovering from a stroke. He had been there for three months, slowly getting better, slowly regaining his strength, his ability to talk breathe on his own. He was getting better and then suddenly he was gone. I knew as soon as I answered the phone what it was. I knew if my father-in-law was calling me at 10pm it was bad news, his voice when he answered confirmed it.
The arrangements have been made for this coming Thursday and Friday and we are left with a week to prepare ourselves to say goodbye. My sister-in-law will be making her way back mid-week, maybe as early as tomorrow if she can get off work. My mom-in-law will be working through pictures and things for the funeral, my father-in-law writing the eulogy and the message. And I’m here feeling useless and sick. I want to be able to help, but I don’t know how. I want to be useful to someone, to doing something. My husband and I are caught in limbo. We’re sick and we’re away from the family, sitting here trying to find something to do with ourselves until the end of the week. It’s going to be a very long week.
So I can’t imagine that I’ll be up for writing on Wednesday. I definitely won’t be writing on Friday. I’ll be taking the rest of the week off, to grieve and process and recover from this ill-timed cold. I’ll be taking care of my husband, as best I can, and giving him as much support as possible. He and his grandfather were so close and he’s taking this so hard. We can rejoice that Mac is in heaven, that he’s praising the Lord face to face, that he’s with Logan’s grandmother once more. He’s not suffering, he’s not confined to a bed anymore. He’s free of all burden, all sin, and all pain. He’s happy. But for us here, learning to go on without him is going to be hard. Moving forward in a world without Mac is sad. And we’re slowly coming to terms with that. All I can ask is that you pray for us this week, dear friends. We’ll need all the prayers we can get to make it through the week.
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