Pretty Dress

I'm pretty stressed at work just now, and I'm feeling a little lost and strange as a variety of different emotions move through me about my grandfather's impending death. So I don't have a lot to say, or what I have to say is a blurt of confusion. Instead I'll tell you about the pretty dress I bought yesterday, instead of eating lunch. I'd seen it in the window of a shop near work the week before, and I have all these weddings coming up, so I blazed in and tried it on, and it fit like a glass slipper. I felt like a princess. When I got home from work I tried it on again, late, and spun around with a big smile.

Here's a picture I found on the web:

Comments

[Patti]

Fantastic dress!!

[Autumn]

Wow, it's beautiful!

[UCL]

Sherry, I'm sorry about your grandmother. My father is also seriously ill right now. I will remember your family in my prayers.

[em]

Hi. I've never posted here before, but a good friend of mine wore that dress, or a similar one, to prom last weekend, and it was gorgeous. I hope it continues to make you feel better.

[Rene]

I hear you. One by one, all my grandparents have lived out the last days of their lives on this earth. You don't get used to it.

As the inevitable was approaching, one of my friends took me to the Hollywood bowl for an evening classical music concert. I was marginally good conversational company and was so tired that I drifted off a few times listening to the soothing music. It was good. Music is a simple pleasure of mine and it was good to just enjoy for a little bit.

Shortly after 9/11, my last grandparent, my maternal grandfather, passed away. He had been in and out of hospitals and nursing homes for a while and it got to the point that we requested a DNR. It was the right thing to do but it still felt awful.

I remember hospital visits when he was sort of lucid, and then less so. I recall visits where there was still some strength to the grip of his hand and then eventually there was barely enough energy to breath. You know that the inevitable and even some ways desirable release from earthly bonds would occur as it is the fate of all of us but it still takes your breath away. You feel it when the phone call came, you feel it when you say the words to tell your friends the news, you feel it when you look at your loved one now without the spark of life in them anymore.

Take care.