Week of Nov. 24, 2013 - On Being Thankful

By Joan Whetzel

 

Today would have been my 34th wedding anniversary. And though my husband passed away earlier this year, I still find I have so much for which to be thankful.

 

1.      2 wonderful children who have done so much to help me put my life back in order. I cannot count the ways. They've accomplished more things than I could ever mention here - it would take up pages and pages.

2.      3 beautiful, healthy granddaughters who are all characters with their own unique personality that make them a joy to be around.

3.      My brother Steve who sat with me in the ICU and through both of his surgeries, and prayed for Mark, and fussed at me to eat something better than the M&Ms and Sprite I had for breakfast in the ER, and for helping to clean out the store room, connecting the washer and dryer, and helping with the first garage sale

4.      My sister Mary Jo who drove me to and from the hospital, helped me figure out the Social Security website, the IRS website, the mortgage company website, for the financial help, and for helping to clean out the garage.

5.      My sister Carol for helping to clean out the store room, fixed my computer problems, and helping me with a make-over so I could get ready for returning to the work force.

6.      My sister Amy for helping clean out the garage and for helping with 2 garage sales.

7.      Uncle Roy and Aunt Lois, Mark's sister Sharon, Aunt Doris, and all of Mark's extended family for sitting with me in the ICU. through his surgeries, and at the end when he passed in the hospice care.

8.      Uncle Roy and Aunt Lois for their help in getting me through the probate process and for financial help at the beginning.

9.      Mark's boss and co-workers for their generous donation and their well wishes, for his boss (Mr. Williams) presence at the hospital and his help getting the information I needed to work the benefits department to get everything I needed.

10.  For my parents who, though they couldn't spend a lot of time at the hospital, supported me with gazillions of prayers, a few episodes of "Keeping Up Appearances" on PBS to remind me to laugh and find the humor once in a while, and for the comfort foods.

11.  Mark's cousin David who arranged the memorial service and preached at the service, and for all the prayers he said for us.

12.  David and Mirranda's family and Dave's friend Zach for helping us to clear out some things from the house and garage, taking care of a few personal matters, and helping with some home repairs.

13.  Mark's friends at the Houston Tinplate Operator's Society train club for their prayers and their generous donation.

14.  All of the customer service people who went out of their way to not only be kind, but to make it easy to change all of our accounts and billing into my name.

15.  The funeral director who came to mom and dad's house the day Mark died and helped arrange the cremation, the death certificates, the online memorial and obituary, and the coordination with cousin David for the memorial service.

16.  Steve's friend, Gus Tamborello, for helping me through the probate process, during a time when I couldn't figure out where my head was.

17.  The one IRS agent who was rude and the mortgage company people who refused to work with me and insisted they couldn't help me because they hadn't received my paperwork and documents (sent 3 months earlier), only to come back and blame it on the failure of another department. These people forced me to take a more creative approach and to seek help and counsel in other directions, which led to better solutions to the problems I was trying to correct.

18.  All the years I was able to write freelance and my college degrees. I was able to earn a little money on the side and may have just given me enough of an edge to get me a full time job that pays better than minimum wage.

 

I am even thankful for all the situations this year that took way longer than I thought they should have. If I'd gotten most of those things done when I wanted them done - NOW!!! - I would have missed out on the opportunity to learn a little patience and to see that most of those things would have been accomplished in the wrong order, which means I would have had to go back and redo a bunch of stuff or I would have had an unsatisfactory outcome. Though I wanted everything done according to my timing, there were a number of steps that needed to fall into place before these situations could be resolved. When you're sitting in the darkness of a life thrown into chaos and not-knowing, you can't see the steps and preparations and behind-the-scenes work that need to take place in order for everything to fall into place. Looking back, none of these things would have fallen into place if I'd pushed for getting things done NOW.

 

I know there are some things, and more importantly people, that I am forgetting here. If I have forgotten you, know that I thank you from the bottom of my heart.