Life, Interrupted...by Life

August 03, 2010

Life, Interrupted…by Life.

Gentle reader, you will perhaps have noticed a long absence on the part of Yr Mst Hmbl & Obdt Svt here, for which I apologize.  The reason can be classified under the loose category of "Sometimes S*** Happens".  Or, Life Interrupted, by Life. 

I can only be succinct here. My Mom passed away on July 23, after a week of in home Hospice care.  She had been in and out of the hospital, well more in than out actually, for all of June and most of July.  She decided she was done with the hospital.  She made the reasoned and rational decision not to go back, and clearly expressed it to me and my Sister in the O'Dark thirty early hours of Friday July 16.  I was  on a plane and in the 90210 by that evening.  I never left her side much for the whole next week.

All her kids, grandkids and the baby Great Grand Daughter were in the house when she quietly stopped breathing on that sunny and pleasant Friday afternoon.  My sisters and I sitting on the bed with her. Which for her was Comme il Faut.  As it should be. She loved the family around her. The noise, laughter, teasing and just, well, just the sounds of Life surrounding her. So it was.

"To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness," wrote Oscar Wilde, in "The Importance of Being Earnest".  I must disagree, I was never in the least careless.  Rather, I was care-FULL in the most basic sense.  I have no regrets, Gentle Reader.  I did all I could do, and know in my heart that my Mom and I each knew every day that we each loved each other deeply, and neither felt we had not done enough for the other.

No, to lose both parents is not carelessness, Lady Bracknell,  it is, however, devastating, more so when in just sixteen months of each other.  They are happier now.  After seventy years being together, they could not bear to be away from each other for over a year. Now they are back in each others arms.  It is we who suffer.  It is we who loved them who now know the meaning of "utterly bereft".  

So, the Wine Guy trudges on again now. A hole inside, where a huge and great part of me once was.  It will close over time.  It will always remain though. That part will always be there.

Back now to Wine.  Back to sharing it with friends, meeting new ones over a glass, and hoping you will find something of value or joy in my meagre words and meandering thoughts. 

Mom wants it that way.  She insisted I go to Bordeaux, despite her being in the hospital at the time. "Go Dear, Please. You will have such a good time. You've been looking forward to it for so long. I'll be fine. I'm being taken good care of here."   So she was then. So she is now.  So, Mom, I'll keep on, and have a good time. That's part of life. Comme il Faut. 

We apologize for the Interruption. Back to Life…

Cheers,
Rob Moshein
Austin Wine Guy