For some reason, Impenitent, I find the words of your tradition very moving. Thank you.
And thank you everyone for you condolences. Right now, I'm too busy to feel very much pain, though I did cry last night when I went to the old house, and began to take apart our big queen-sized bed in preparation for the movers. Those tears were mostly for the one I shared that bed with, though. I hugged his pillow to me, and wept and wept, raging at God, remembering all those nights of sleeping with one eye open, because Roger tended to get up at night, and wander, and he had trouble managing the stairs after having the stroke. He also often needed help changing (the bladder cancer made him incontinent, of course.) Fortunately, my mom was spared that indignity.
Just to add to the stress today, the mover stood me up. He was trying to reach me on my cell phone last night, but I never though to check for messages. (I normally use the cell phone mainly for work, and anyone who knows me usually leaves a message on my home phone as well as the cell, as I leave the phone in the car at all times. When he couldn't get through to me to confirm, he scheduled another customer into the time slot. I was quite upset at first, but once I understood that he did not have my home phone number (either old or new), I forgave him. We rebooked the move for the 31st, which will give me a few more days to get things organized here, which is not such a bad thing.
Anyway, a carpenter is coming at 8 am tomorrow to fix one of my kitchen cabinets, and I still have an eulogy to write, so I'd better sign off and go to bed.
Some good news: my geriatric German Shepherd is home, her lipase levels are normal, and the diarrhea is cured. She's not quite her spunky self yet, but being starved for five days will probably make any dog lethargic. She was skinny before, and now is nearly emaciated. I hope I can get some weight back on her soon.
The bad news? The vet bill came to nearly 3 times the original estimate: $1,486.50.
Ouch. Not sure I'm going back to that clinic again, once she has a recheck done in a week's time.
_________________
When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows,
Lies the seed, that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes The Rose[/size]