MaryLou left today.
She is my husband's brother's wife's mother. And I loved her dearly. I met her before David and I married. She is the matriarch of an incredibly tight-knit family, yet she never once treated me like an outsider. In fact, walking into her kitchen was like stepping into a wonderful hot spring. Warm tea, great food, family conversation.
I instantly felt included - immediately followed by well fed! I can think of a dozen things I want to say about her, and her incredible family, but they all look trite when I put them on the page. I keep remembering snippets of conversations we had. Like the time she told me about her internal debate over the value of their dairy cows versus their smell when the wind shifted towards the house. Discussions about kids and school and meals and history and marriages and work on the farm and the many "older" folks she cared for. Though she might have seemed a touch frail on the outside, she was made of titanium inside.
I guess she just lived two lives in one, and had to go before the rest of us were ready for it.
Wish I could have said good-bye in person.
