Memorial Week

Wednesday we had the memorial mass for my mother. My brother had flown in from California. Both nonbelievers, we dressed appropriately and played our parts in the mass with reverence in memory of our mother, a devout Catholic. Fortunately, the priest was a jolly Irish Catholic type, who had no problem saying "damn" or "shit" (not during the mass).

That evening, we held a sort-of wake, with close friends of his and mine, with finger food and champagne. We toasted Mom and our sadness at losing her. By the end of the day, I was exhausted, physically and emotionally. Went to bed early and slept like a stone (which are always asleep, right?).

On top of all these events and planning etc, I was told that I would going to be laid off from my part-time job. It's only five months before I'm going off in my RV, but I've got to find something for that time as I can't afford to live on just my pension. Not to mention that I won't have any extra money for fixing up the RV, either. Aaarrrgh.

I'm thinking "lemons, lemonade" but it's not helping right now.

Outrage

This last week has been a whirlwind, what with lawyers, undertakers, priests, etc. All was going along well until I went last Friday (11/16) to clean out Mom's things. She had only been dead a week, and her rent was paid through the end of this month. We were informed by the extended-stay suite hotel management that the "crime scene cleaners" had come and removed everything and, they believed, had incinerated it all!!! Supposedly it was all a "biohazard," even though she didn't die of anything communicable.

I almost fainted. No-one had notified me that this would happen (or even "could" happen). It wasn't as though Mom had a lot but there were a little jewelry and her address book and some family photos and the like -- now all gone forever. And I doubt seriously that the jewelry was discarded, and what about the furniture that belonged to the hotel? Un-huh, probably not discarded either.

Outrage is too small a word for what I feel. Deep-seated rage is more like it. And I'm going to see to it that this is paid for, one way or another, by someone.

Sad News

I haven't posted since the lovely birthday lunch with my mother and brother. Last week, my mother died suddenly. I'm so pleased that our last memories of her were good ones.