It all started three years ago today.  The day Mom died.  I actually didn’t find out until two days later, when a family friend discovered her body.  She’d gotten the flu and gotten weak.  Sometime on January 17, 2011, my mom went to sleep and never woke up.

My (then) nearly 100 year-old grandmother lived with Mom at the time.  She had discovered Mom’s body but wasn’t sure what to do, so she did the only thing she could do:  she kept the fire going and kept herself fed, knowing that eventually someone would stop by.  As soon as I got the call about Mom, my mind went into overdrive.  What were we going to do about Grandma?

Well…the ultimate answer was that she moved in with me.  She lived with me from May  2011 until she died of old age at my house in October 2013 at almost 102 years of age.  I wrote a previous blog about my experiences taking care of her here: One L Short of Normal (A quick check tells me that the first post of One L Short of Normal was on January 18, 2013…almost exactly a year ago).

I’m not the same person I was before Mom died.  Far from it.  Whereas I used to spend most of my time out with friends and was hardly ever home, two and half years of being home has made me a homebody.  I used to be really extroverted (which masked my shy side).  Now, I get anxious in crowds.

There have been some really positive changes as well.  I’m more empathetic and more patient than I used to be.

I am starting to enjoy my new-found freedom, and I look forward to the discoveries and adventures that await in the coming year.

After Grandma passed away,  I knew I’d have a lot of processing to do.  It’s been a tumultuous few years!  I missed the writing I had been doing on the blog about Grandma, so I decided that I’d share the process of the re-birth of my life in writing, here.  If nothing else, it gives me a place to put down my thoughts and share the occasional photo that I take along the way.  I hope you enjoy.  And if you do (or even if you don’t)…leave a comment.

Cheers!