Every Day's a Blessing

Many of you know that my grandmother has been in and out of the hospital for awhile now.  On Sunday the members of my immediate family who were traveling away from home (everyone but Mom) stopped at the hospital in Platteville to visit Grammie.  We had been informed by her doctor that she was in heart failure and that her other systems were beginning to shut down.  It's amazing how not sick someone who is suppose to be dying can look and behave!  It was weird to sit there talking to her knowing it would probably be my last visit with her and yet knowing that I had been with her when she was in much worse condition than she was that day.  

In the middle of us all coming to terms with what would soon be the inevitable with Grammie, my father received a call from Stephen informing us he had hit ice on the way home and rolled the car.  Suddenly the focus on Grammie's impending death was usurped by near catastrophe elsewhere.  From what we could tell, it seemed that he, Lourdes, and Maria Loraine were all ok, but it did not stop any of us from being shaken by the call.  

Emergency personnel transported Stephen, Lourdes, and Maria Loraine to the hospital to be checked out while Dad, Marcia, and Matthew drove down and dealt with the car and getting all the holiday presents et al delivered to their house.  Thankfully, they are all fine and are gradually readjusting to daily life in full swing again.

As tensions fell away, so did Grammie.  She left this earth today.  There had been so many close calls with Grammie over the years -- her heart had the tendency to give out.  I would get a call,  find my way to whichever hospital was caring for her on this particular occasion and wait for the merging of the extended family.  In some ways it was uneventful to hear the news left on my voicemail.  My internal response was matter of fact, not surprise, or grief, or shock.  It had finally happened -- for real this time.

And I am reminded that every day is a blessing for us all.  Even as we prepare for the difficult in one direction, we can never predict what will come at us from another.  Be mindful of each day.  Never waste an opportunity.  Never assume paths will cross again.  Live now.