Its been said that grief is love with nowhere to go but I dont think thats entirely true anymore.
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Updated 2 years ago,March 2, 2023
I still feel you all around.
As such, we were beginning to clear out the relics of lives once lived.
DVDs and floral candle holders with candle sticks that had well-worn wicks.
Grandpas dozens of hockey trophies and coffee cups.
Side tables and couches and photographs of all of our shared memories.
I have to admit, theres a weird sense of guilt in taking your grandparents items.
The things I wish I could take with me from Granny and Grandpas are the feelings.
The sense of safety.
The inkling everything was going to be okay.
ThatIwas okay, too.
And at 31, I still feel this way most days.
Granny and Grandpa never made me feel that way, though.
I spent a lot of time there during the summer before and after senior year of high school.
Ivanhoe became my safe place, a refuge from the storm my mind was trying to kill me with.
The clouds always seemed to flush the second I stepped through their front door.
I wish I could keep you just as you are,Granny had written.
I immediately burst into tears.
Despite the emotional disarray that has held me hostage, Granny still saw good in me somehow.
At Grandpas funeral, Uncle Gil gave the eulogy.
He based it on the wordhappenstance, a phenomenon that truly defined Grandpas life.
Things just always seemed to work out for him.
He was always at the right place, at the right time.
The best part was Grandpa truly recognized his luck.
G
Youll never meet anyone like him again, Mom said after he passed.
Shes right; I know I wont.
None of us will.
But the truth of the matter is we are all witnesses of happenstance, too.
After all, we had him.
And we were lucky.
Its been said that grief is love with nowhere to go but I dont think thats entirely true anymore.
It lives on within us.
Granny got distracted easily but also loved to pay attention.
To everything all at once.
Shed notice a little haphazard tree while driving or the flowers someone lovingly planted in front of their home.
She saw things just begging to be admired that no one else seemed to care about.
So she picked up the slack.
She was in awe of the world.
She noticed the good in me, too.
And everyone, really.
She understood people in a way most others do not.
I know I will never meet anyone like her again either.
But Im lucky I did.
Everything that had been there with us was there.
The Jesus stone statue in the backyard.
Everything felt familiar but so very different all at once.
How can I help?
Aunt Beth smirked at me and we laughed.
The Ivanhoe house was sold last summer to a lovely woman and her family.
I like to think of the memories theyll create there.
I hope they feel the warmth, too.
I think they will.
How could they not?
Theyre at the right place, at the right time.
