It's times like these.......

I'm sitting in front of the computer, trying to type this, while I watch my phone and wait for it to ring. I know that sometime in the next few days, the phone will ring, and my sister will tell me that my mother has died.

I went to see Mom last week. Her health had taken a downturn, so I decided to go see her while I still could. We had planned a trip to Pigeon Forge for vacation, but the Smoky Mountain Knife Works will be around next year and my mother won't be. So off we went to Florida to see Mom.

It was a good trip. We took Mom out out for dinner one night and out for lunch one day. At dinner, Mom just picked at her food until my dessert arrived. I asked her if she wanted a taste of my coconut pie. I turned to talk to my sister and when I turned back around, my pie was gone. I'm guessing that it was good. One night we had dinner at my sister's house. The dinner company was my mother, my sister Sheila, and my wife Susan. What a group! There were three women having some wine and me trying to choke down Florida tap water. The water would have been better had I just dipped a glass out of their pool. It was good to sit around the dinner table and swap stories of days past.

Mom and I did our part for the local economy by going to several antique stores and thrift shops. At one store, I filled a shopping cart with military uniforms and other military items. Mom looked at my cart and asked, "Gilbert, are you equipping some kind of militia unit at home?" "Not yet, Mom, not yet." was my answer.

On Saturday, they put Mom in the hospital for a blood transfusion and a couple of infections. She went home Sunday, but went back Monday when she fell and hit her head. She stayed there until they transported her home on Thursday so that she could die at home. The Emerald Coast Hospice people brought in a hospital bed and are providing care for her.

This has been my most stressful week at work in the twenty one years that I have worked there. There are a lot of changes coming at T&S, but that's best saved for another day and another post.

What's the good part of all of this? I have received more e-mails, phone calls, and personal messages of support and encouragement than I would have ever thought possible.  Jesse Bledsoe, the pastor at Buffalo has been a lot of help. Several employees (Linda, Talmage, Bobby, Eric, the Susans, Paula) have surprised me with their concern. Ginger stunned me with a phone call. I even had a call Thursday evening from my "only" friend, Ken Blitchington. If any of you read this, thanks!

 Anothere friend sent me an e-mail yesterday with two stories about things that employees had mentioned to her yesterday about me. She closed her e-mail with  "It’s times like these you know how many people care. So there." She's right, of course. It's times like these that try men's souls. It's times like these that make you appreciate having friends.