I am always thrilled to be a part of a wedding. Having married many couples, it is always fun to see the bride enter, smiling, elated, and thrilled of the adventure with their mate. Looking over and seeing their partner next to me, in awe, overwhelmed with emotions, and happy. \u00a0This wedding was special, it was my cousin. \u00a0Someone I babysat, grew up with, and now I stand in front of her in awe of her life\u2019s journey. \u00a0As I gave her the vows to repeat, she stopped and said, \u201cThose are beautiful words.\u201d She is very nervous in front of people, I smiled, \u201cI didn\u2019t write them, people have been saying them for hundreds of years.\u201d Everyone laughed. Marriage is a time of new beginnings, adventures, healing, forgiveness, and growing with the self and another. \u00a0The ebb and flow of life with another.<\/p>\n
When the ceremony was over, we partied. \u00a0Enjoyed good conversation, danced, and of course sang the YMCA, which always makes me laugh. \u00a0My 4 year old daughter and I danced all night. \u00a0If was very special and wonderful.<\/p>\n
The next morning I awoke and got in the car with my Dad and drove to SF. \u00a0A family friend was dying. hospice was there now, tending to her. Patsy had been a part of my life. since I was born. \u00a0She was adopted by a Croatian couple, little did Patsy know they would make her a maid. \u00a0She would wake up, take the bus to the hospital and do the laundry. She would come home to see the couple and do their laundry, cook, clean, \u00a0and wash them, then back to sleep to do it all over again. \u00a0She worked at the hospital for 45 years. \u00a0She never dated, married, or had any family. My grandma became friends with Patsy and began to bring her to family parties. Patsy was always smiling and fun. \u00a0She was like a great aunt.<\/p>\n
In her room the Hospice lady said the fight was over, she had 24 hours or less. \u00a0I sat with her, as my Dad made plans for the priest, funeral, etc\u2026Her eyes were blue, like a child\u2019s eyes, she was shaky and tired. \u00a0As we sat there, I was amazed by the beauty of death. \u00a0Most of us run from it. \u00a0Death is the final expression into love. \u00a0I sat there and thought of the party the night before and the celebration. Now I was sitting in a cold room, alone with a Hospice lady and my Dad. No fanfare, no celebration, no other people around, and it was breathtaking and simple, profound, and beautiful. \u00a0I love death. I really do. \u00a0I love being around the dying. \u00a0As you sit with someone, the stories they had fall away, as they come back into light. Their bodies get lighter, and there is a sense of AWE on their face. \u00a0Almost like a secret they just discovered but can\u2019t tell you now.<\/p>\n
Patsy passed away at 9 pm pst Sunday.<\/p>\n
Amen<\/p>\n
Love you<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I am always thrilled to be a part of a wedding. Having married many couples, it is always fun to see the bride enter, smiling, elated, and thrilled of the adventure with their mate. Looking over and seeing their partner next to me, in awe, overwhelmed with emotions, and happy. \u00a0This wedding was special, it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[145,166,244,480,701],"class_list":["post-383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spiritual","tag-cousin","tag-death","tag-four-year-old","tag-patsy","tag-wedding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wrestlingwithyourself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wrestlingwithyourself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wrestlingwithyourself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wrestlingwithyourself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wrestlingwithyourself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wrestlingwithyourself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wrestlingwithyourself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wrestlingwithyourself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wrestlingwithyourself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}