for a long time, like years,  I was never there often enough.  How I would call to get a grocery list…deliver the stuff then later that day or in the morning he'd tell me what he'd forgot.  So i had to go again.  I would always tell him to get better at making the list,  but i pretty much always just went again because he couldn't go anywhere by himself, 10 years, give or take,.  He was dependent.   (I wonder what that felt like?)  (I wasn't always easy on him)  (He knew he was annoying me)  (But he was good at walking a fine line…pushing it,  just as much as he could, but not too much)  (he was lonely).

This last year or so, momentum.  His need became not choice but reality.  Thinking back, almost daily, it grew.  Until his life was as imminent as my own.

I woke in the middle of the night last night and there was this:

if you agree to

matter

to someone,

no matter how, (you matter to them)

then,  really

Matter Well.

 

Went there today to wait for the Hospice equipment people to retrieve their bed, commode, nebulizer, etc.  They never came.  When finally i got to the bank to get the Will out of the Safe Deposit Box because since I am not blood to him,  they need the Will that says he wants to be cremated, and i got to the funeral home,  nobody answered their door so i came home with his safe deposit papers and a fire proof box from Walmart, just in case.  And i did some things here,  started a crock pot of beans,  some things Out Side,  pet the dogs a lot, Tazmeena, try out scraps on the pouch, maybe, and all the while,

Something's Missing.   Not in Place.  Missing.

I think of him there,  downstairs at the Funeral Place,  his body in that fetal position waiting for what's next,  his spirit hovering,  How he is dead now.  and like i always said,  I didn't love him.  But i am learning how much he Mattered as time went by.  How much of who I am I put into Mattering,  being Mattered.  It's more than i'd thought.  I miss him.  So i am drifting now,  for awhile,  finding self just looking at stuff

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looking for scraps for rocks i found this ….  had forgotten all about it

 

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front and back of the other half of the Maria Cloth

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28 responses to “Missing”

  1. Liz Avatar

    Ah Grace … this is all so true and real

    Like

  2. Dana Avatar

    Life is so common and so profound. At the time of death the deep reaching tendrils that bind us become wrenchingly clear. The space left behind is so empty. I know you will be able…maybe even be glad… to hold the emptiness until life seeps back in.

    Like

  3. grace Avatar

    it’s more than i’d imagined

    Like

  4. grace Avatar

    common/profound.
    i WILL be glad for the Space. Yes. I will so much be Glad for it
    but at the same time, simultaneously, i honor what we were to one another
    and how softly he let me know about Death.

    Like

  5. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    I was just thinking of the honor that you both shared and of front and back:
    Front can be easy, all of the years of doing for Robert, the lists, the errands, the phone calls, putting up with attitudes, etc. The back is where all of that collides with reality and this year, he showed such vulnerability and you understood, received it and carried on. In between front and back the space where each of you mattered. He honored you by putting this year of his life into your hands as well as his death. You honored him by your steadfastness and loyalty. Mattering and missing, that is the way of it…

    Like

  6. anna lisa Avatar

    Matter Well
    that is a profound thought to spend time with.

    Like

  7. grace Avatar

    this is IT, Marti, this is IT. Perfectly and yes.
    Absolutely. Absolutely it.
    Mattering and Missing…the way of it. yes. Thank you
    for the words

    Like

  8. grace Avatar

    anna lisa
    to Matter Well.
    if we choose to matter, if we give agreement to matter, then
    we must matter
    well.
    we can say no, i am sorry, i can’t. and that is ok too. But if we say yes, ok,
    then we need to run the distance and matter well. or not.
    but Learn, either way.
    love to you….

    Like

  9. Mo Crow Avatar

    the Old Cowboy got to die at home peacefully, you granted his wish with grace

    Like

  10. Terri Boehm Avatar
    Terri Boehm

    What you gave to him Was love, of a profound nature. So much more than a lot of people ever get. It was a beautiful thing. I float in and out here, but glad I caught this tale of transitioning. peace, grace xxoo Terri

    Like

  11. Deb G Avatar

    There are so many kinds of love… and yes the missing.

    Like

  12. Michelle in NYC Avatar

    Seems to me sometimes the absence of someone is more potent.
    We are left on our own with our selves and thoughts.

    Like

  13. yvette Avatar

    an imprint on your soul to never go away between all the others
    life will be never the same
    life wants you to go on but take time to work this out
    you are tired empty numb
    don’t fight please
    it is

    Like

  14. .cynthia Avatar
    .cynthia

    it is strange and empty and full that first amount of time…when there are outside of self things to do..and you do them..unmet…i remember a bed unpicked up for the seemingly longest time…long enough for it to become the object of some fairly black humor…but not a bad thing because it was shared and it still has the power to make me smile..in my drift it was the strangest of anchors…
    the front and the back and the drift .. around … the drift in between and the time that it takes..the time you give these things…they all seem to combine and make a small life force of their own…and new things take shape..and new spaces form..and there you are at the center ..so weird to be in free fall and so still all at once ..
    oh gentle day grace

    Like

  15. grace Avatar

    yes. we did it.

    Like

  16. grace Avatar

    Hey Terri….i’m glad you floated in

    Like

  17. grace Avatar

    kinds of love…

    Like

  18. grace Avatar

    yes…it’s an odd feeling….the being on my own…,

    Like

  19. grace Avatar

    waking this morning, the second day, i am
    knowing to just go slow with it.
    it is.
    and i need to Let it.

    Like

  20. grace Avatar

    yes, that’s It….that’s it exactly,
    a small life force of their own ~ free fall and stillness
    oh a gentle day back to you, Love….

    Like

  21. julie Avatar

    and what is also missing from the air you are now breathing is your commitment to him. Must be like having a bone missing.

    Like

  22. Patricia Spangler Avatar

    to say “you matter(ed)” is, in itself, such an under statement…and it’s so interesting from my perspective to imagine the two orbs of life energies–yours and his–drawing closer together over time–until finally they intersected like venn diagrams–and at that place, the intersecting space, what a wonderful treasure trove of lessons and experience awaited each of you. isn’t the universe just perfect…

    Like

  23. jude Avatar

    a space is a space.

    Like

  24. beth Avatar

    I woke this morning thinking about Travis who I assume will go on and do this again with another person nearing the end. And then again… What must that be like? To be that person who comes and cares. And matters to a stranger.

    Like

  25. grace Avatar

    it is.
    a piece of Self
    where did it Go? Where IS it?

    Like

  26. grace Avatar

    i guess the word
    mattered
    means more to me than it might
    stuff that matters

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  27. grace Avatar

    it is.
    a space is a space.

    Like

  28. grace Avatar

    oh so thanking you for this thought…Travis, he is YOUNG, 29 years old and he is full to the brimming of this all. He is full and he is deep and he is Fine and he is There.

    Like

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