Farewell to yesterday, embracing tomorrow…. A year in review.

As 2024 comes to a close, I am thinking about all the things we have gone through over this year. It’s funny how it’s human nature to instantly remember the bad before the good. It’s only because the bad things, such as death, leave such a sting. Truth is though, we are blessed every day, even in the little things or the things we take for granted, whether intentional or not. 2024 started off beautifully, we welcomed into the world our beautiful great niece Guilia Jane West, and the next day, marked the 30th anniversary of the day Mike and I married. 

February was not as pleasant. I missed my trip to Florida to visit Nick, Aubrey and the kids and to celebrate Noelle’s 4th birthday. I got the flu which turned into pneumonia and then septic shock. I ended up spending 7 days in the hospital, 6 of them in ICU. I didn’t realize until speaking with the doctors how close I had come to dying, but I’m glad God kept me here for a bit longer. 

March brought us a great nephew, August Samuel Dale, we will probably never know him as they live in another state, but we are grateful for the blessing of his life.

 In April, I finally got to go on my postponed February trip to Florida, visiting my daughter and son in law and snuggling the grandkids is always a blessing. The bad thing that happened in April was that a dear friend had a life threatening stroke. It was quite a scary time, many days in a coma and months in rehab, but between answered prayers and his hard work, he is doing amazingly well (keep fighting and stay strong José). I am so grateful.

 In May, a friend, who is my son in law’s grandfather, great Grampy to Collin & Delaney, passed away. It was hard to see his wife (my friend Denise) and all his loved ones, grieve. He was diagnosed and was gone before they could even wrap their heads around the news of the diagnosis. He was a very well loved man and I know many will forever miss him. 

At the end of May, I finally bought the truck I had been wanting for a long time. I’m not too fond of the payments, but I’m glad I was able to do it. 

June was uneventful which is a blessing, but it was a hard one. It was my mother’s first birthday spent in Heaven. I had a small amount of her ashes and I took the time on her birthday to put them in the lake, where she wanted them. Talk to her a little and pray. It was something I needed to do by myself. I miss her. 

Nothing for July stands out, I worked the summer program at school and I had a couple of beach trips with my friend Amy which were therapeutic and fun. 

The last week of July and first week of August, My daughter Aubrey, her husband Nick and their baby Finnley had the opportunity to go on a mission trip to Wales, Grumpy and I got to have our grandchildren Noelle & Britton for 12 days. We loved every minute of it. We got to make many memories, we along with their Papa & Memerè and Uncle Orion, had a picnic lunch on Sunset Lake. We had a tour of the Danville Police station and fire department. We enjoyed a bunch of time on a new to us swingset/jungle gym, which Noelle and Britton called Grammy’s park and/or playground. We celebrated Lilly’s third birthday at Cowabungas and saw Minnie Mouse there. We also had a cousin day with Elijah, Lilly, Henry, Fiona and Giulia at Auntie Jane’s house and we even had special guests, Spiderman and Elsa join us. 

August had its share of highs and lows. On August 2nd, our youngest son got engaged to the lovely Darcy. We are so happy for them and look forward to having her “officially” be part of our family. We lost a friend that most referred to as “Nanny”, she was my niece and nephew’s grandmother but was a present person in my life since I was a little girl myself. August also had us celebrating my niece Cheyenné and TJ’s wedding and what a beautiful wedding and reception it was, although not nearly as beautiful as the bride. As life would have it, we gained a nephew in TJ but we also lost Mike’s mom. Her death not only brought sadness, but it brought division in the family and reconciliation. It brought sadness and anger and it brought up a lot of traumatic memories for Mike. We still haven’t completely grieved and are still feeling an array of emotions in the midst of the dysfunction and chaos. We (my siblings, Dave and I) also spread the rest of our mom’s ashes in the lake while our brother Dan was home from Virginia. 

In September my great niece Cora married her love Keagan, sadly I had to miss the wedding, but I’m sure she too was a beautiful bride and Mike and I both hope they have a happy ever after. I started another part-time job which is close to home, it’s with kids, which I have always loved to work with and is a blessing, as I adore the family who own the business. The sad part of August is that my Uncle Lenny passed away. That was another tough one. I have so many fond memories of him throughout my life.

 I have been fighting Hemolytic Anemia for a couple of years now with no known cause despite a ton of tests, I have a swollen spleen and non alcoholic fatty liver disease. My hemoglobin is still in the anemia range but has improved to where I am able to function without pure exhaustion. In October I was diagnosed with Type II diabetes which is not ideal, but I am taking it serious, changing my intake and since October, as of today, I have lost 22 lbs

October brought elation and despair in the form of a hurricane. The despair was that my daughter and her family lost their home and the majority of their belongings. They became technically homeless and were forced to live with friends, then an air b&b and now a rental. No help from our government (surprise, surprise). But the elation is that God spared their lives. As they were escaping their home, the roof literally collapsed into the cribs that the kids were in just minutes before. Within 24 hours, some of their friends showed their God loving, servant like hearts by cleaning out the rubble where their house once stood and what little belongings they could salvage. People near and far, family, friends and even strangers donated monetary gifts to replace necessities, some furniture, clothes, food etc. People showed real friendship and grace in their time of need. Although the event of the hurricane caused much stress for them, uncertainty, inconvenience and anxiety, it also showed them that God was with them through it all (Hebrews 13:5, Deuteronomy 31:6). In the midst of all this we lost another friend, my son in law Nick’s Uncle, Bill Motard. When we met Bill and his wife Betsy through Nick’s parents, we hit it off right away and have been friends for about 30 years. Bill was a good man with a great sense of humor who loved his family immensely. 

In November I had heard of the death of a long time friend Carol Melanson, I hadn’t seen Carol in a couple of years, but her and her husband Doug have always meant a lot to me. I was saddened to hear of her passing, especially for Doug’s sake, but I know she looked forward to the day she’d be in Heaven. The real tough one in November was the loss of my sweet Jared. Jared was one of the first students I worked with and that carried over to occasional respite for his parents at their home. I adored him. Thankfully, his mom Donna has become a good friend and sister in Christ over the years and she kept me in the loop to his ups and downs and health struggles. She gave me the opportunity to have a nice visit with him the weekend before he passed and I will treasure that time with him forever. 

Now here we are in December, again, ups and downs, happiness and sorrow. It started out good, with mine and Betty’s annual trip to the Methuen Festival of trees and lunch. Always a good time spent together with good venting conversations and laughs. The work week before Winter break was fun, playing Secret Santa and receiving gifts from mine. Coral Hampe is an awesome Secret Santa. 

I had the pleasure for the second time of chaperoning the eighth grade field trip to North Shore Music Theatre to see The Christmas Carol, some how it was even better than the first time. The kids as well as the adults were a captive audience and talked about it quite a bit afterward. Had another great day starting the tradition of making “Santa cookies” with Lilly. Christmas Day was quiet, but nice. Mike and I exchanged gifts, in our pajamas and enjoyed a quiet, relaxing day. The bad, just a few days before Aubrey’s family’s trip, coming here, Noelle broke her collar bone. The thought of my little Poppy girl’s bone breaking brought me to tears, but she has been a trooper. More good, they arrived safely and I’ve had lots of snuggles. This past Sunday, Mike, the kids, grandkids and I enjoyed our family Christmas at Jason & Shanoah’s house. We had pizza, snacks, gifts, a Yankee Swap and most of all cherished time together. Shanoah even took a beautiful picture of all 7 of our grandkids together, it’s priceless. 

The sorrow that wraps up this year is the phone call I received last night from Patti Vlack, telling us that her husband, our friend Tom passed away. There are no words really, just feeling sad. I surely will miss him and my heart hurts for Tom’s family. Today on New Year’s Eve day, I worked, but it was an easy day with only 8 kids and I got home by 3:30. Now, I am currently typing this as I snuggle with Noelle, something I will miss next week when she and her family have to go back to Florida. Britton isn’t feeling well, which is another bummer, but while his family goes out to visit other family, I will have some 1:1 time with my Ducky boy, if he feels up to it, we will do a craft together and some snuggle time. Sounds like the perfect way to say goodbye to this year and a kiss from my Mal at midnight (if I’m awake) will be the best way to ring in 2025. 

Happy New Year everyone. Make the best of this next trip around the sun and don't forget to find and focus on the day to day blessings, even if there is tragedy mixed in.