More tears, more bears.....

Tonight I attended a memorial service for the mother of one of my "younger" friends Deanna who was also a former co-worker. I had called D yesterday as she had been on my mind and thought I'd catch up with her - I had absolutely no idea her mom had passed away. I was (and still am) completely in shock. I didn't even know she'd been sick. She was barely 54 years old and had been diagnosed with cancer in October. The service was very moving and D's younger brother Guyle (who I've also worked with) did a fantastic job relaying funny stories of their growing up and their mom Sande's life. I also met and sat with a woman who, as it turns out, is the mother of someone else I work with -- in fact, I was trying on sunglasses a half hour prior to the service in one of our Pro Shops and this woman's son had actually picked out the pair I ended up buying. "Easily ten years off your age!", he'd said. SOLD! Anyway, it was an emotional night - my friend's mom always had always seemed so young - at first some of us had thought she was D's big sister! It breaks my heart so see another family suffering so much grief in the loss of a close parent. D told me yesterday that at this exact same time last year they'd all been sitting around planning her sister's wedding; today they were sitting around - without their mom - planning her funeral. She said her mom was so looking forward to being a grandma some day.

Anyway, these memorials really make me appreciate how lucky I am to have such a close relationship with my parents. My son is also so very blessed - he has both sets of grandparents -- and one set of them (my parents) live on the neighbouring 2 acres. He spends a lot of time with them, and their home is a "home away from home" for J and his cousin M. I only had one grandparent - of whom I have very fond memories - but she lived in Kansas and passed away when I was close to 30.

My mom "Nona" took J for a walk tonight with the dogs. This is the second time in a week they've seen these bears - this time they were in the densely treed area in the field just next to ours. So they decided to take a "wider" route home. Our English Setter (definately not the brightest dog we've ever owned), decided to chase after the bears - with her full-out high pitched bark. My mom thought that might be the end of her, but the bears just ran away from her. So, I've got an elderly Mouse-huntin' toothless cat, a bear-huntin' pointing & barking bird-dog, and a table-scrap huntin', fartin', and snoring bulldog. What a clan! But they're all part of the family!