The Ties that Bind.....

Maddy and Zach came home to visit this weekend and cheer me up.  It's such a blessing with Barbara gone that she left me with the legacy of our children. We went to see the Hobbit, which I found delightful....and then Zach treated us to dinner at Longhorn, a family favorite.

It's interesting because everything we do now is in the shadow of Barbara not being there. I can understand now the pain that a man or a woman is dealing with after their spouse has died and why they give up the will to live.  My mother died on 8/30/2002, the day I sent my own family east to Virginia. I had to stay behind to finalize the sale of our business,(Mr. Trees) which didn't close until 10/31, (Halloween) of that year.  For that three months I lived with Dave, my step father in my mother's house....and we grieved together.  I commuted back and forth across the country during that time...but most of it was spent with him.  They were married and he had been my step father for 33 years, but those last three months we were together, bound us together. After the closing, and I left him alone to go east with my family....Dave died two days later. The day of his death, he had lunch with a loyal friend and showed him where he wanted his ashes put when he died.  A place close to where he had put Mom's ashes, but as he said in his instruction, "not so close to her that he would bother her, but close enough to visit."
God knits us together with others.....whether family or friends....these are the ties that bind. I am grateful for my ties to her....and the ties that hold me here.  Leave you tonight with a song our  children shared a few years back..
                            Always remember, there was nothing worth sharing
                                 
Like the love that let us share our name...
In His grip,
Papa Tripp