I was talking to a lady tonight at work.
I mean I talk to lots of people at work, but tonight it was just her and I in the store, with Nigel in the back fixing stuff.
We were talking about the complex where she lived and how it was over 55 folks, and a lot of them had lost their spouses, their husbands…and she wouldn’t be far behind…
Now usually I run screaming from that conversation, but over the years I have found that I really like this lady and we get along well, so I asked her what was wrong with her husband…
She told me that he has a Neurological disease, that makes it so he falls down, and eventually he won’t be able to get around on his own.
We had a pretty in depth conversation, and then I told her about my mom. How things happen that you just never expect but you work through it, you adjust to what is happening and you make it through.
How you have to laugh.
I have known this woman now for around nine years, and I have never seen her not smiling. She was still smiling today. Her life isn’t what she wanted, but it’s what she got, and she is good with that. She is taking every good bit out of it she can get.
She was my hero a little bit tonight. She made me remember to be grateful.
When she left, I started thinking about it. About my Mom. About the aneurysm that she had, that she lived through. It was 19 years ago, around this time of the year, she was the same age that I am right now.
I remember when it was because it was during the playoffs, in downtown Vancouver when the Canucks nearly made it. I didn’t watch hockey then, I just remember how loud it was at night with everyone partying and being hopeful, and all I could think was that they were a bunch of assholes to be celebrating.
It was the night before the big riot.
A night that changed our lives forever.
Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t change a thing. I wouldn’t want it to have been any different. Because the different might have meant that I wouldn’t still have my Mom. Who is also my best friend. Who I can’t even begin to imagine being without.
And the alternatives would have only been that.
And that would have sucked.
Because even though it wasn’t what we thought it was going to turn out like, it wasn’t how we imagined at all…it’s still awesome.
We laugh, we cry, we piss each other off and mostly we love each other. We have survived the shittiest of the shitty together, intact and stronger together than we ever would have been without all we have gone through.
I don’t for one second ever forget how incredibly lucky that makes me.
How 19 years later we are the best family ever. We aren’t normal. We aren’t perfect. And that is okay with me. We have adjusted and moved forward, we have learned the damndest of things…I am always amazed by the strength my parents show and how they always pass that on to us.
Life is short and we need to embrace every single day that is awesome, every single day that turns out normal, every little battle that you win in this life.
You need to watch for heroes.
Like the lady in the store today, like my parents…
Remember why life is so awesome and be grateful.
Happy Wednesday beauties xoxo