Eleven Years Ago Today...

Today I'm remembering my beloved mother-in-law. Eleven years ago today, after several days of all of her family being with her at the hospital around the clock, my father-in-law made the decision to take her off of life support. If my memory serves me correctly, all eight of her children were there with her as she died (as well as some of their spouses and several of her grandchildren). It was beyond difficult to let her go, but I remember the overwhelming feeling of gratitude that we had been able to keep her two years longer than we had expected.

Two years earlier, an infection swept through her body and she came very close to death. They ended up amputating both of her legs in order to save her life. The loss of her legs was very difficult for her, and yet she remained the sweet, fun person that she had always been... while being confined to a bed for her last two years of life. I feel very blessed to have been given two extra years to spend with her! If she had died two years prior, all of her children would not have been able to be there at her side. She also would have missed ever meeting her two youngest grandchildren.

The day she died was the day before my 28th birthday. That night, my then-10-year-old son had a baseball game. I remember him writing her name on the palm of his baseball glove and how badly he wanted to hit a home run in honor of her that night. The next day, I remember feeling almost honored to spend my birthday at the funeral home making her arrangements.

I can honestly say that I had the best mother-in-law that I could have ever asked for! I hope one day that my daughter-in-law and I will have even half of the relationship that I had with my mother-in-law.