How to describe the Spring of 2019… The once derailed train from winter was getting back on track, starting back on its journey when a tsunami slammed into the side. A perfect example of Murphy’s Law, “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong”.
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A year ago I was sitting in the ICU staring at my Stepdad, who had coded, was now ventilated and had two poles full of meds keeping him alive. A year ago, I was celebrating my first Mother’s Day without my mother. Having just two months prior, sat in that very same hospital slowly watching my mother slip to the other side.
It was just days prior to me walking into our family home and finding my Step Dad severely dehydrated and disoriented on the kitchen floor that I finally felt like I was catching my breath. Adjusting to this new ‘normal’ since my mother’s passing. The business of death had subsided; Organ donors calling (no, I’m sorry you can’t have my mother's eyes, they were the only organ in her body that wasn’t overrun with cancer), obituary written, cremation, burial, and one hell of a life celebration or as we called it a Gailabration. Phone calls, visitors, it had all finally quieted down. It was just my Stepdad (aka Piggy) and I now.
We took our first family vacation, hello Disneyland! I was turning 35 at the end of May, we adopted a dog and Matt and I decided to book a trip to Italy! Celebrating my birthday, my mom (who I first traveled to Italy with 13 years earlier) and just life in general. But this new normal came to a screeching halt... two days after returning from the happiest place on earth, two months to the day of my mother's passing, I truly thought I would be parentless at age 34.
21 days later Piggy was transferred from ICU to a post acute care facility and Matt and I made the next best decision and boarded a plane to Italy. Taking a brief break before adjusting course and settling into yet another new journey.