Saying Good Bye to Mom

I have returned to Nevada this week, because my Mom passed away last Friday.  I had mentioned a little while back that she had been sick… and yet we did not realize how quickly this would happen. It is not completely clear all that was going on because she was still in the process of tests, but the bottom line is, that she had tumors that had metastasized throughout her body.  It all happened very quickly. We have been in the midst of sorting out the details and our sadness these last couple of days. I suppose I am still in a bit of shock.  We were all seeing that she wasn't well, but even so it was sudden.

She passed away peacefully, and is now home with the Lord… these are the most important things to me.  It is what has comforted me and my family. To know that I will see my family again in heaven is my prayer.  It is interesting, because she and one of my nieces went to see the movie "Heaven is for Real" just before I came out here two weeks ago.  I believe she was looking forward to Heaven.  After hearing what different family members said, it seemed as if she had a sense of what was about to happen.  She was to be 79 years old next month.  We will all miss her very much.

I am up early here at my brother's house.  Everyone is still sleeping.  I am thinking "should I go make a pot of coffee or would it wake everyone up?"  Coffee is sounding good.  We will go to Church in about 3 hours, then figure out how we will proceed the next couple of days and weeks.  I brought pictures with me that we can all go through. That is always the nice part. There is something very special about looking at pictures of when you were young; of realizing that you and your family are all bound together by parents, blood, DNA, common features, happy times and sad.  Our family has a "thing" for whose "nose" or "toes" you have; every last grandchild can't escape the delight we all have by finding ourselves and our family members imprinted on those noses and toeses and eyes and thumbs and so on; even as we have gotten older, we can't seem to resist trying to find ourselves in our parents and grandparents and each other.

Here, we are having lunch at a little cafe in Portugal.  I think it is about 1965.  Mom on the right, my Dad is behind her, my brother Mike in the back, me on the left, and I think my brother Dave is taking the picture.

 Mom on the right, holding my brother Mike, and my Dad holding my brother Dave (I haven't been born yet).

We have all been talking about the day that we will be together again in Heaven, and what family members and friends would be greeting Mom even now.  I look forward to the day that we have that big family reunion in heaven.  The older I get the more "real" heaven seems to me.   I have never wondered about whether "Heaven is for Real" but I have loved hearing stories about heaven and thinking about heaven is like thinking about a most wonderful trip that I have planned in the future, a trip to a most glorious and beautiful place, a trip where Jesus and our Heavenly Father live, a trip where many of my loved ones are. Now my Mom waits for us there.

 Mom  in the middle, with me on her right, and my brothers and Dad on either side; 

Mom in the middle with me in her lap, and my Dad with Mike, and Grampa Pryal with  Dave my Grandpa Tom and Granny Pryal in the back;  Granny Florence is taking the picture.  My 4 grandparents used to live next door to each other.  That's how my parents met.  Dad was a college boy, and Mom was still in high school when they met.

This is the last picture I have of Mom it was taken only a week and half ago.  It was amazing how good she looked, and how she was just right here.  The header picture is of Mom and I about 7 years ago.  It was at a Mother's Day lunch. Our grandson, Elon, was just a baby then.

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die;  John 11:25