Marilyn was the backbone of my husband's family. Every event she coordinated. Every minute detail of his sister and his brothers' lives were captured in her daily conversations she had with her children. We're quickly learning that without her, we don't really know each other at all.
At Easter, in years past, Marilyn would plan a meal and everyone would eventually, sometime through out the day, stop over so that she could see the all the kids. If she didn't feel like cooking, we'd all get together and have brunch after church. This year, everything was different.
Of course Stew is in no position to be planning family events. The man just lost his wife and he's trying to learn how to function on his own right now. One of his brothers invited everyone to have brunch, but some brothers went in the morning, some brothers went after church and even some brothers didn't show up at all.
We tried to organized an Easter Egg Hunt at Stew's house, and some brothers didn't even know about it.
All of the disorganization just adds to the confusion of defining life without her. A friend simply told me, "Well, it's time for you girls to step up to the plate," meaning that we (the daughters-in-law) needed to assume Marilyn's position with these events. I guess she's right, but it doesn't feel right in my heart.
I guess we just miss her....I wonder what Thanksgiving and Christmas is going to look like.
Here's a picture of the kids on Easter morning:
No comments:
Post a Comment