Blessings, Grief, Laughter and Back to Blessings Again
0 comments Posted by Nellie the Great at 9:00 AMThese past two days are incredibly hard to put into words. Perhaps the easiest way to describe it is an emotional rollercoaster. Before I go too much farther, I want to let you know that I don’t use that term in an negative way. Quite the opposite…but I’ll explain later.
My father in law, Art Gregory passed away last week rather unexpectedly. Art was an amazing man in so many ways that it is almost impossible to put into words. To have known him was a blessing in and of itself. I’m trying, but I really can’t put everything into words. He was an awesome grandfather to my children, and to use my mother in law’s words “He truly was one of the good guys.”
I had the privilege to be able to go to Illinois for the grave side service. I was supposed to leave our airport at 5:40am, but like an idiot, I left my cell phone at home. So unfortunately I ended up missing my flight. That would normally be a *very* stressful event, but as it turned out, it was an amazing blessing (see, and you thought I wasn’t going to tie this back into the title!). Because I missed my flight, I was blessed to meet the most amazing British lady. Angela was quite possibly one of the most interesting people I have been privileged to meet. As we waited for our next flight, we chatted like old friends. She told me such fabulous stories about her life in England, then Spain, and finally Texas. She told me about her grandchildren who live in the same town as us. She told me of her biker husband who has a heart of gold. I told her about Benjamin and his journey, and she told me about her own battle with cancer. Anyway, eventually we boarded our flight and sat in our respective parts of the plane. That wasn’t the end of my journey with Angela though. Since I had a two and a half hour layover in Atlanta, I decided that I was going to become Angela’s stalker. Angela had problems walking, and I figured she might need some help, so I asked if I could escort her to her gate and maybe get some lunch. She agreed, and continued our fabulous journey together filled with amazing stories. It was with an almost heavy heart when we finally parted paths. I know that there is no way that Angela will ever read this (she doesn’t have a computer, she gave hers away), but I really hope that one day I will meet up her in the airport again!!
I eventually made it to St. Louis and was able to spend some wonderful quality time with my extended family while celebrating the life and morning the passage of my step father in law. It was an honor to attend his service, and I was truly blessed in so many ways by my time in IL. It is truly amazing to me how wonderfully blessed I have been in so very, very many ways lately!
And Mom Betty, if you’re reading this…AK. That’s all I have to say. :D
Authors note: This post was written 1/5/2011
