Don't Wait For Tomorrow

I don't have a really good picture of my mother-in-law, otherwise, I would put it here. Why? Because today she has been gone for 1 year.

It was first thing in the morning when I got a phone call from my husband telling me that his mom had passed away early that morning. We had both known that she would probably not live a very long life, but we never expected for her to be taken at 51 years old.

One of the hardest things for me? I was 6 weeks pregnant and Candy never knew that she was going to have another grandchild. You see, we were waiting to tell everyone at Thanksgiving, which happened to be the very next Thursday.

I still to this day get choked up thinking about the fact that I never got to tell her about the pregnancy, talk with her about it, see the excitement on her face when we told her it was a boy, talk with her about how Josh was when he was a baby and see the love that we all knew she had for her children and grandchildren.

I didn't get to know her as well as I would have liked, but then I had only known her for 2 years before she died. Candy was not perfect, of course. She definitely had her flaws. However, now that I am on the other side of the fence, I would rather have her and her flaws than not have her at all.

I tell you all of this for two reasons.

1. Writing is often times how I deal with my grief. Everyone deals with things differently and this just happens to be one way that helps me deal with my pain.

2. There is never enough time to talk to, love on, share things/stories with and enjoy those that you love. So don't wait to do it tomorrow. Don't think you have enough time to get what you need or tell them you love them. Do it now. You never want to be left wondering.

Just remember, even though everyone is not perfect and they have their flaws, I am sure you would much rather have that person and their flaws then to never have them again. It may not have always been easy with my mother-in-law, but she loved her kids, grand kids and she loved me like I was her own daughter.