Well.
A lot has happened in the past three Tuesdays. I started a new job two weeks ago, doing copywriting for a website that some of you may have heard of. I've been around there even longer than I've been here on DA, so it's sort of a natural progression, in an interesting sort of way. My first week was hectic, but good. I'm not used to working from home, and I'm still adjusting to that part, honestly. I like being a homebody as much as the next person, but I'm a little more social than I thought I was, so balancing being at home and being able to go out and do things has been tricky.
Last Tuesday evening, my grandfather passed away. We weren't super close, but he was family, and I was used to him being around, at least in some way. He went into hospice care the Friday before, caught up in the midst of some heart problems that he'd had for a long time. The doctor said that if he'd been in better health they would've tried surgery, but they didn't think he'd take to it, and so he went into hospice care with the understanding that he could make it two days or he could make it 6 months. They didn't really know.
Several family members got to see him before he went, and my aunt was there when he passed. He was in decent health on Monday, but Tuesday he was not doing anywhere near as good, and I think we all kind of knew at that point that it was going to happen. My aunt told him that it was okay for him to go, he took three breaths...and he was gone.
It seems so strange, that it would be that kind of...well, cinematic, for lack of a better word, but that's how it went.
The next morning I posted this, because it was on my mind and I was struggling to focus on work long enough to get things that needed doing done:
Things they don't tell you.Things they don’t tell you about losing your grandfather on a Tuesday night:
When you wake the next morning, you still
need to get out of bed in time for work, you still
have to shower, dress yourself, eat breakfast, brush
your teeth and hair;
and when your mother calls
to check in, you have to comfort her because she lost
her dad last night;
and when you call your grandmother
your voice cannot waver lest you upset her, because
she lost a man she's known for seventy years and even
though she would never hold it against you, you still
feel obligated not to cry;
and when you sit down
to do your job, you will have to do it with all your heart
because if you ca
To say that I've been overwhelmed by the responses is an understatement, but I'm grateful for it all the same. In a grand stretch of irony, it's the first poem I've written in almost two years, and in the past 6 days it has become the most favorited and commented on deviation in my gallery, my fifth Daily Deviation (second on this account), and the only piece of writing I've ever posted that managed to hit the Popular page.
It's been a bit difficult to keep up with everything around here, but it served as a pretty strong reminder as to why DA has been my home for so many years.
This Tuesday is a work in progress. I got some less than savory news on a personal front; but, I'm making the most of it. It's nothing so bad that it doesn't have a solution, so I ultimately have no reason to complain, except out of frustration.
Have you sent TheMaidenInBlack your Thanksgiving note yet?
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