A Mother's Passing--Introduction

The following series of posts were actually written a couple of years ago in the wake of my mother's death. At the time, they were emailed around to several people. I place them here so that, if you did not receive them before, you will have opportunity now. I may edit the text as I go, but there may be the occasional oddness that is the artifact of the original medium. On July 19, 2003, at 11:30 p.m. EDT, my mother passed away. It was a shock to all of us. She was not ill; she had shown no indication of any problem. She was working outside that afternoon and, around 2:00 p.m., was stung by a bee. She wasn’t feeling well and called my sister. While on the phone, she collapsed. My sister Elizabeth hurried over and found her unconscious. The paramedics could not revive her and, after several hours spent in intensive care, she died. She was only 51 years old. I loved my mother very much, and the last several days have been some of the hardest of my life. And yet, at the same time, they have been glorious. I have been privileged to see the fruits of my mother’s life. I have been permitted to see the Church caring for its members in their time of trial. I have learned more about how to die and how to mourn. What follows is a record of those days, as best as I can remember them. As the time has progressed, I have been keeping notes of what I wanted to say, so I hope to preserve some of the immediacy of the thoughts and emotions that were passing through me at the time. As I'm sure that you can appreciate, time has been at a premium of late, so I will be sending this journal entry in several parts. Makes sense to me, at any rate. After all, I will be covering 10 days. (Maybe more.) (The next post is here.)