The journey home...for us, and for my mother, Barbara, who found her way to eternal life yesterday at 2 am, thankfully 18 hours after we made it to her bedside.
She was able to acknowledge that she knew us before she began to slip away, and died very peacefully surrounded by her family.
While we are profoundly saddened, I am taking comfort from her life and her faith, and feeling very blessed to have made it home to her.
This is a solemn postscript to a blog which has been about living life, and about living it to the fullest. My mother was the person whose abundant love made me capable of that.
I want to thank everyone who has been following along, my family and friends and people whom we have never met, for all your support and love.
This is my last post, I think. I am ready to begin the next stage of my journey with a little more privacy. But doing this blog has brought me a lot of insight and we have no regrets..My sister has done a beautiful blog about my mother's final weeks..the link to it on http://www.caringbridge.org/ is above.
Blessings to all our readers...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
Dear Ann and family,
Our deepest sympathies. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.
Ann
of GACE in China
Ann and family,
I am so sorry about your loss. I am so glad you were able to come home while your Mom was alive. It is sad, I know, I just lost my father one month ago.
Thank you for your year long blog. It was very interesting and fun to see the apartment that I recognized since I spent one month with Malinda and the girls. It was fun to see your cute girls with the dress up clothes Zoe and Maya left for you.
My thoughts and prayers are with you.
Fran Grandmother to Zoe and Maya
Dear Ann,
My deepest condolences to you. I am also very glad that you managed to arrive home to spend the final moments with your Mom.
Do you remember the one Sunday I came up to ask about her at church? I discovered my own Dad's cancer a while later.
I stayed on after the Spring Festival to care for him but I am deeply saddened by his sudden death just 3 days after we returned to Xiamen. We had to fly back the very next day.
It is such a great loss and I hope that Michael and your kids will bring you comfort in the days ahead. Take care.
Best,
Christine & family
Dear Ann,
I learned from other families at the Parkside Art Camp about your mother's death so soon after your return. I was so sad to hear of her death but equally happy to hear of your fortunate arrival. I hope that your family is finding some peace now, adjusting to its new shape and remembering your mother and her gifts. It will take time, as I know.
We look forward to welcoming you back to Parkside in mid-July.
Love,
Jane, Mike, Ani and Elia
To my dearest sister and family,
Mom & I both delighted in reading about your China adventures this year. I'll miss your blogging, but words cannot express how blessed I feel at your safe return home to us. Thank you for encouraging me to come visit you. It was a truly memorable trip to Xiamen, with the perfect traveling companion. Thanks too, for being my wonderful sister and blogging "muse."
Love, Mary
To my dearest sister and family,
Mom & I both delighted in reading about your China adventures this year. I'll miss your blogging, but words cannot express how blessed I feel at your safe return home to us. Thank you for encouraging me to come visit you. It was a truly memorable trip to Xiamen, with the perfect traveling companion. Thanks too, for being my wonderful sister and blogging "muse."
Love, Mary
Post a Comment