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07/12/2005: "homeward bound, COD"

Today was the start of end of the mourning process. My M-I-L's ashes were laid at sea off of her sailboat, along with the ashes of her favourite cat from days gone past. So dealing with her body is done with, but dealing with the memories of her will last many years hence, I'm sure.

Tomorrow, I'm coming home.

One item I'd like to clear up is the cause of death. At first I heard "infection". Next I heard "blood clot", which I then translated into "stroke". The truth is closer to the second. As far as we can all determine, after a fairly significant biking accident months ago, she developed a very slow bleed in her brain. It's nothing that would have ever gone detected based on her behaviour or how she was feeling (other than some headaches, apparently). But it was enough... the back of her brain cavity was entirely filled with blood, and that apparently shut her systems down one by one overnight. Wholly unexpected, and thereby totally unpreventable. As the F-I-L has been saying, "It was fate."

Tomorrow I'm on a 3pm-ish flight from LAX back to YYZ (Toronto, for those of you that don't memorize airport codes). It's going to be a long day - 3pm Pacific automagically becomes 6pm Eastern, add in a 4.5 hour flight, at least another 30-60 minutes for baggage and getting my car, 60 minutes return drive... I'm going to be bagged when I get home. I think my work day will be starting later than normal.

For those of you that have been taking care of things at home, many thanks. For those praying for us and keeping all of us in your thoughts, thanks as well. I'll be sure to call everyone (eventually) when I get back, as my mental energy allows. I'll be home alone for not quite a week before the rest of my family follows me, so feel free to call - Thursday night or later.

And rest assured, I'm feeling MUCH better than I did a week ago. And I didn't even have anything to drink tonight.