vida

today we had a memorial service for barrett's grandma vida who passed earlier this year. in may, we had a graveside service for her on a beautiful sunshine filled day in seattle. today all of the family was together, as well as some of vida's friends, to remember her and celebrate all of the ways we loved her and were loved by her.

i first met vida right after barrett and i were engaged and she was so happy for us. later that year, we went over to her house on a beautiful summer day and took her some chinese food from her favorite place, and sat out on her patio and had dinner together. she was very excited to have our company and we spent a lot of time talking about all of the beautiful flowers she had growing in her yard and wedding plans. it was such a fun night with just the three of us. she rallied all the way to aberdeen for our wedding, and i have never seen her look more beautiful than she did on that day. the picture above was taken, without her knowing it, while she was watching barrett and i take our pictures before the ceremony. it was so great to have her with us on our special day.

vida loved malena, and she lit up whenever malena was around. she was so entertained watching malena play. vida was the first person to introduce malena to ginger snap cookies, and they enjoyed them together multiple times in the last two years. the last time that i saw vida was just days before she passed. we took malena over to her apartment so that she could see vida. vida had been in the hospital a lot and we didn't want malena to be scared by seeing her with all of the machines she was attached to so we hadn't had many chances to have them in the same place. while we were there, vida kept laughing watching malena play, they ate some ginger snaps, and there was so much joy in vida's eyes for having malena's company for a while. vida's family was her life, and as was said today, she was the center of our family, but she never wanted to be the center of attention. i would notice her often times just watching us all interact from off to the side with a big smile on her face.

vida loved ice cream bars so today we remembered her with ice cream for dessert, malena especially loved hers as you can see - i think she almost got the entire bar in her mouth.

jim's service was the first one i attended since i had been diagnosed. i think that they will affect me differently from now on. before my diagnosis, if i thought about my own mortality, i would picture myself like 95 with kids and tons of grandkids. i no longer assume that will be the case, but i hope it is.

i intend to be truly grateful for each and every day that i have left, regardless of how many of them i am lucky enough to have.

i will check back in next week, likely after i get my results from my scan on wednesday. keep those fingers crossed. keep those good vibes coming. send me some good karma on tuesday around 1:00 when i am by myself in the room while my iv drip of radiation moves through my arm into my body.

eat some ice cream. vida would like that.