Bittersweet

This past weekend I attended the funeral of my best friend's father. Sadly he lost his battle with cancer at the young age of 60, and was laid to rest in South Carolina on Saturday. It was actually the first funeral I have ever attended and honestly didn't know what to expect going into it. I knew it would be sad of course, but what I didn't realize was that it would be heartwarming at the same time.

My best friend, Mama M, is the mother to a 20 month old and is actually pregnant with her second at the moment. Not only did she have to deal with her father's declining health, and subsequent passing in an entirely different state, because she is the oldest of the siblings (her parents are divorced) she also had to deal with all of the planning, and now estate dealings. All of this while she is 7 months pregnant and working a full-time job. The way she has handled all of this for the past 3 weeks amazes me. She is the strongest person I know, and I love her even more because of it. She said to me, when her father first passed, that it is amazing and sad how quickly children have to become adults - she felt like she, the child, was in charge of doing something that the adults should be doing...but here she was making arrangements for her father's funeral and meeting with lawyers about his estate. 31 is too young to be doing that.

While at the funeral service, her uncle was giving a touching speech about his beloved brother, and right when he got to the part about Mama M and her brother, and it started to get very sad, as if on queue, her son, baby O, comes running into the room with no shoes on making silly noises and waving his hands in the air. Everyone broke into smiles and laughter at the joyous site of this precious little boy, without a care in the world. And this 10 second moment got me thinking about a ton of things...

It made me think about how precious time is with your parents, and your children and all of your loved ones. It also makes me want my parents to be close to my daughter to watch her grow up in person and not via Skype on the computer. It made me so sad to think that her father will not get to see her next child be born, and what sadness that would bring to me if something happened to my parents.  It made me miss my daughter (who was not with me at the time) so much it was painful, and made me anticipate my homecoming the next morning even more. And that got me thinking about how much joy children bring into people's lives and how the past 8 months of my daughter's life have flown by faster than I ever thought they could. Life is so short and so precious.

I don't really have a point to this post, but I hope it inspires you to call your loved ones to tell them you love them, or hug your child tighter when you see them next.