An exhausting week

This is the last week of school for my kids (and hence for me, too!), so it's a busy week anyway. Add in a wake and a funeral and you've got a crazy week.

My aunt passed away early Saturday morning. She was 70. She had been sick, but only for a short time. It doesn't really seem real, somehow. I feel so badly for my cousins, and for my mom and her other siblings. Just seeing my cousins and uncle at the back of the church with the casket was what got me crying. We were all grown up when our grandmother died, but my cousins' children are so young! I know there are a couple of them that probably won't remember her.

And of course this all makes me think of losing my own mother, which fills me with dread. She takes very good care of herself (much better than my aunt did, truth be told), but still, we are only mortal. I know I need to just enjoy whatever time we have, because we don't know when it will be our turn. I was watching some of the older people at communion, and I wonder how they bear it, losing their friends one by one as they age. It is one of those difficult things about life, I supposed.

The kids at school are getting a bit nutty, and really, who can blame them? At their ages, summer vacation seems to stretch on infinitely in front of them. There is a little nervousness for some of them, too, as they think about next year and wonder what will be expected of them. A couple of weeks ago my Little Bug was getting really clingy. It took me a few days to realize that it is probably because they are talking about moving up to fourth grade and she is, quite naturally, a bit nervous about that.

But these things, life, death, change, are all part of life, and as long as we can hang on to the important things then we should all be ok. I hope my cousins and uncle will be ok, and that they will find strength in their faith.