What a Year it Has Been!

Well how do I start this?  It has been one traumatic year.  For those of you that know me,  know that I am an only child.  I was definitely a Daddy's girl.  In December 2012, my Daddy became sick with a severe headache.  This was odd, because my Dad was not prone to having headaches.  After being in the hospital for 33 days, they found out he had contracted Crytococcal Meningitis.  At this point, we thought he was getting better and we were planning to bring him home.  But at the end of the following week, he started stroking and was unable to talk.  The next day, he slipped into a coma, to never return to us.  We had to make the very difficult decision to remove him from life support.  We did this and he was such a fighter, he hung on for a week during which we had him transported to Hospice.  They took wonderful care of him in his last days. He finally went home to be with his Lord on February 4, 2013 at 2 am.  I was able to be at the Hospice House when they came to pick him up to take him to the funeral home.  My last goodbye for awhile to my wonderful Father.

Needless to say, this year has been very hard for me.  I was very close to my Dad.  He was so vibrant and full of life.  He was working 40 plus hours a week right up until he died, traveling back and forth to China working for John Deere for the last 8 years.  He was so smart.  He had accomplished receiving his Ph.D. late in life.  He is my Hero!!!

So, I have been needing to take over things that my Father did for my Mother since February.  Later in February, my Mother traveled back to Florida to stay at her Winter home.  I then was traveling back and forth every other week between Michigan and Florida to be with her and help with estate items which needed to be done and anything else my Dad usually would have done for my Mom.

She has since come back home to Michigan this month, so the last few weeks have been a bit lighter in travel.  It has seemed good to be able to be home for a few weeks now.  We are getting ready to go and put the flowers up on his grave site. I'm sure this will be hard as well, but as time goes, the heart does heal.  God is good.

I have been able to get back into my cross stitching a little bit.  I have started a new Welcome Banner from Stoney Creek.  

Well, enough for now.  I'll check back later with my progress so far.