MEDITATION DAY

Today is what I am going to call my Meditation Day. I am going to stay home and think about the past memories I have about a special person in my life. She was introduced to me right after I was born. She lived with my parents for a while during the time her husband was in the Korean War serving in the Army.

During my youth, I spend a lot of time with her as the family circle was close. After the war, they were transferred to Texas and were stationed at one base while her husband finished his 30-year Army career. She got a job at the military base and rose through the secretarial ranks to become the executive assistant to the base commander. She also retired after working there 30 years.

For a long time, she would fly to Ohio to visit every two years, and we drove down to Texas a few times before my parents passed away. She lived in the same house for almost 60 years.

I have such good memories of driving down in 2006 and spending a few days with her; then in 2009 I spent a week visiting her; then again in 2010 I spent two weeks there. She was no longer able to travel to Ohio due to physical limitations that started in 2003.

Today is the one year anniversary of my aunt's death at age 89. My mother also died at the age of 89. They were six years apart in age growing up, but had similar traits as sisters. The irony of the family history is uncanny. Each of those sisters had one daughter during their marriage. Each of those daughters bore one son during their lifetime.

As I drove to Texas for the funeral in 2011, I started to think about all the events that were intertwined. My mother had died six years earlier (and they were six years apart in age). The date of the funeral was February 5, which was the actual date of the sixth anniversary of my mother's death in 2005. At the funeral, my thoughts were of both sisters being reunited in Heaven and my having time to grieve for both of them.

Luckily, I have many fond memories of our past, and memories are the one thing that no one can ever take away from a person. As I smile today, it will be because I know they are in a better place, out of the pain they each suffered prior to their deaths. I'm sure they are happy to be together, watching over me.