Seven Years Ago

 Well, we now have reached seven years since Mom's death. I won't post much this time as I may post some more later this year. But, oh, how I would have loved to have her by my side!

 An update from last year's post: After that soulless European company took over my beloved company, I headed to another location until said European company closed that one, too. I was there for six months, then ended up for six weeks at a location that had been bought back by our CEO and was therefore safe. It was a very long drive and I was most unhappy there, but thankful to have a full time job in my company. The district manager--who I have known for 20 years--saw me there and was stunned to see me driving so far away. He immediately arranged to have me transfer to another safe store after the holidays, a store just a few miles from my home! 

  I've been there since the very last week in December, and I have a decent Specialist position with weekends off. Honestly, the best gig I've ever had in the 23 years I've been with this business. But all of this, with good and bad, would have been made so much better with Mom with me, talking about it almost daily. That's something I miss and yearn for all the time.

Six Years Ago

Tomorrow will be six years.  I really needed Mom this past year. It was filled with so many unexpected and upsetting issues, but having my mother by my side through all of it would have made things so much easier.

  First, my water well collapsed around Labor Day. No running water. I had to pipe over not-so-good water from my neighbors (who were gone for the summer), but at least I had running water.  It took six weeks for the well drillers to be able to get here to drill a new well; several thousands of dollars that I didn’t have, but my Dad actually paid for it, a shock.  Then we had a major hurricane days later, which was a huge mess. 

  Then in November, my beloved workplace of 16 years (in a company that I’ve been at for 21 years) got the horrific news that it was being taken over by a weird European company and would close by the first week in February.  Losing such a wonderful place of employment with absolutely irreplaceable co-workers was devastating; I was hired by that European company, but left after just two weeks; I don’t do the cold, calculated European way of work and European way of life, like, at all. I was able to go to another store that hadn’t been taken over, but a farther drive and with a slight pay decrease. The people there aren’t nearly as great and close and fun and loving as my other store, but it’s a full-time job and an easy one at that.

  Now, just this week, we got the news that our store, too, is being converted into the soulless European company!  We will lose our jobs in November.  So I’m trying to go to yet another store that hasn’t been taken over yet. Once again, my life is being turned upside down. 

  Many of the people I worked with for years don’t speak to me anymore; one of them who I liked very much worked nearby, but hasn’t said a word to me or visited in six weeks.  Losing so many once-great co-workers and friends has been hard on me.  Confusing and upsetting. Some of us keep in touch regularly, but nothing’s the same anymore. Not by a long shot.

  But all of this would have been made much easier by simply having my Mom by my side.  Just her presence, her comfort, her help, her care and concern, would have made all these issues not nearly as scary and hurtful. I’m alone through all of this, just me in this journey. I have to say that this past year, I needed my mother more than in the previous five years since she passed away. Oh, Momma! How I need you!

Five Years Ago

 Tomorrow marks the 5th anniversary of Mom’s death. Five years tomorrow at 11:40am. I can’t believe it’s been five years. Everything just seems like a blur to me these past years. I’m taking the day off work as I haven’t worked on any of the previous anniversaries and never will. I will be doing a certain ritual—a tradition, if you will—as I do every year at the time of death.

  My emotions are not so much sadness anymore, just anger and bitterness sometimes, directed at her for not trying to live and for secretly drinking herself to death; but also directed at myself for not seeing the signs and not doing everything in my power to keep her alive. It’s almost like some supernatural (re:evil) cover was put over my eyes, a malevolent pair of blinders that kept me some seeing reality and doing something about it. That anger turns into fits of rage every now and then, fortunately I keep it within the well-insulated walls of my house and is never, ever showcased in public.

  Not much else has happened these past five years, just work and sitting at home and going on little road trips to mountain cabins twice a year or so and visiting old friends up there while I’m at it. I got a promotion at work over years ago; Mom would have been proud. I’ve gained quite a bit of weight these past few years out of depression, I guess. I don’t know. I was involved in a car accident in Tampa two months ago, totaling my car of 13 years and causing me some injuries. I’m temporarily using Mom’s old car (seen in a previous blog). It would have been nice to have been able to call Mom afterwards and for her to be there for me as I went through recovery and all the mess of an accident, but I had nobody to call except for that father of mine. Life without your soulmate is empty.

  That’s all for now. I greatly encourage all of you to read my other blog posts over the past five years. Check them out!

Four Years Ago

 This is the fourth anniversary of Mom's death today. I have a certain ritual that I conduct every year at 11:40, the time of her death, and this year was no exception. I remember everything about that week four years ago, all the bad and the sad and the horrors and the shock. Some might say I suffered from PTSD from all of it; I would certainly agree. Living four years without my beloved parent has been a most unhappy time, one that I would never wish on anyone. 

The "thoughts and prayers" comments are always silly. The out of touch Baby Boomers think empty words and clichéd religious phrases are encouragement, but my generation is unphased by all of that; we see right through it, and it means nothing. Losing your soulmate, your loved one, is simply a personal experience, a matter that nobody else can help with. It's a one-person struggle, as lonely and isolated as that may seem. 

  So I check off another year. Nothing is the same anymore. 

https://www.bankspagetheus.com/m/obituaries/Carol-Collins-5/Memories

Three Years Ago

 Tomorrow is the third anniversary of Mom's death. No, it doesn't really get that much easier. No, I don't "move on" from something so traumatic and life-changing; I just try to make do the best I can until I'm ready to go. The "brain fog" is long gone. Crying and wailing all the time is also in the distant past. But the incredible lonliness and emptiness remains as nothing positive has supplanted it in any way. 

  In the past year since my last post, I spent thousands of dollars on a therapist via the BetterHelp app; it was nice to talk to somebody off and on for several months. I've been able to throw away lots of Mom's junk that I just kept in closets and sheds, unwilling to part with it; I realized none of it was needed or had any sentimental value to me at all. So there have been positive things that I've been able to do in the past year. 

  Ever since Mom's death, I've been on a Facebook group for people who have lost their mother. A woman on there took a picture of me and my beloved mother and made a cute painting of it. I'll share it here and bid you adeiou for now.

Two Years Ago

  Monday at 11:40am marks the two-year anniversary of my beloved mother and best friend's death at 64. It hasn’t been a happy two years. It’s nothing I would wish on anyone, and nobody can understand unless they’ve gone through the same devastating and life-changing loss. I’ve had people who lack empathy say things like “I’ve lost an uncle and a cousin one time.” Ummm…ok. Are you an only child, single, childless and alone, with a useless father and no other close family? Did you spend 39 years straight with your mother, side-by-side almost non-stop, together in practically every aspect of life? No? End of discussion. Go very far away.

   I’ve had virtually no support from Mom’s family during the death and afterwards. No cards, no calls, no condolences on Mom’s obituary page. Two of Mom’s siblings haven’t even acknowledged her untimely death, and one asshole uncle told me to hurry up and move up just hours after I watched the woman who saw my first breath breathe her last. And in less than a year, two longtime friends have died unexpectedly, and another has moved far away to another region of the nation. 

   My world has gotten smaller and darker in the past two years, and I’m not the same person I used to be. All one can do is just keep going on, I suppose. 

Some Minor Progress?

 I finally moved Mom's sick bed back from the living room corner to the guest room. It had been sitting there unused for two years this month as Mom was sent to the hospital and then to a nursing home, where she died soon after on August 16th, 2019. I rarely am in my living room, so I kept putting it off as I guess I wanted to hold on to any memories of my beloved mother as I could. My online therapist encouraged me to finally move it back, and I did just that this week.  I found lots of books and paperwork under the bed and I cleaned that all up. I then brought out Mom's clothes basket that had been sitting in another corner, and I went through that, throwing away most of the clothes but keeping some favorites she wore, as well as the last thing she wore before leaving my home forever. I feel that this was a bit of progress in my grief.

Where it stayed since Mom's death

What was underneath 

Time for the clothes basket 

Back where it originally was