Party

It was a party all day yesterday and all day today.  Mom was sleeping peacefully, but the LNA said she could hear everything going on.  I sure hope so.  

Here are a few photos of the party that continued after mom passed away.  Yes, we were crying, but we were also laughing and hugging and eating.  Kelly always liked being among the chaos, and that's what she would have wanted.  After she passed away, the mourning intensified, but even then, you can't cry all evening.  There were moments of quiet, which were hard but necessary.  There were also moments of laughing about running out of kleenex (Kelly always was a big fan of toilet paper anyway), or laughing over stories of ,"the first time I met Kelly she was up in an apple tree...".  

The party continued after mom died, with her still laying there in the room.  It was nice to feel love and joy and happiness with her body there.  Those things are not forgetting her, but instead, a way to remember.    

There were hours and hours of time after she died to walk over to mom and give her a kiss.  Walk over and tell her I love her.  Walk over and tell her how sad I am that she will miss the rest of my life.  Walk over and tell her how her selflessness was so unassuming, so much a part of her, that I hardly realized it was there. 

It was hard to see the people from the funeral home come and take her body out of our house for the last time.  But it was only her body.  I am so thankful that she didn't have to leave the house and go anywhere else to die.  She died in our beautiful home full of people and love.