Life goes on

Fear not, I haven't abandoned my blog.

Sherry's funeral was on Thursday at 12 noon. It was such a beautiful service. All about her. We had a few government customers fly in for it. I have to admit, it's been such a joy to hear from her customers who are starting to find out about Sherry. Sherry touched so many lives. I've done pretty well with everything. I got pretty upset Wednesday when I went into the office for the first time after finding out. It was hard to imagine that she would never be in the office in person again. But her spirit is still there. I truly believe that Sherry died happy and not in any pain. She did everything in life that she wanted to and I know fully understand why she pushed so hard to get to Israel. That was her last request...taking her grandsons to Irsael. Thursday was hard. I got upset as I walked up to the chapel and saw her good friend, Liz (who is Brenda's mother-in-law) and Liz hugged me and said Sherry thought so highly of me and loved me dearly. And after the service, it was so hard to watch Jerome throw the dirt on her grave. It seemed so final then. Throwing dirt is a Jewish tradition. You take the shovel and use the backside to throw dirt 3 times and then turn it right side up and throw as many shovel-fulls as you want. And you never hand it to someone. They believe that handing the shovel to someone will pass your grief onto the next person. The whole thing is considered the highest act of kindness, since the dead can't repay you for it. I thought about throwing dirt but since I'm not Jewish, I didn't know if I would be allowed to.

And so, life goes on. I stopped by Jerome's house on Friday afternoon to see him and Brenda. Brenda was telling me about different things. Sherry had been preparing for this for a long while. She had been buying paper plates, cups, napkins and plastic silverware and hoarding it in her back bedroom. Just do they didn't have to go out and buy any while trying to deal with her death. And then, there is the legal pad. Brenda said she had been in and out of the back bedroom and that closet numerous times between Wednesday morning and Thursday night. She went in Thursday night to look for more stuff and she noticed this legal pad of paper that she hadn't noticed before and on it said "Passover 2009". Sherry had written out everything they would need to plan/buy for this coming Passover dinner. She may be gone but she's still in control. Jerome is doing surprisingly well. Last night was his first night alone. Since Sherry had been in the hospital, he had been staying by her side the whole time and Michelle stayed at the house to take care of things there. Michelle's husband and kids flew back home to DC on Saturday night and Michelle flew home last night. So he didn't have anyone there with him. He called me this morning and told me to get a whole bunch of 2009 catalogs ready for him cause he was coming back to work this Thursday or Friday. He told me that he and Sherry had talked about this long before she got sick. She told him that if she ever died before he did, he had to move on and get back to work and start dating again. Plus, I think he's starting to go a bit crazy in the house.

I have a CT scan in the morning. I have to get up with the chickens. ugh! 5:45 am. I haven't been up that early in IDK how long. But I have to leave the house early since my CT is at the hospital and I'll be driving during rush hour. Always something. Hopefully, this comes back OK though.

Proverbs 3:5-6