A Thank You

One of the things about life is that it never turns out the way you think, imagine or dream that it will. All of your best laid plans can and do frequently change. For Zack and I we never imagined that we would be living they way that we are today. As part of never imagining things would be the way they are, I never expected to be living in my house with Zack, my late wife's mother - Nancy and my two dogs. In some ways it is a very unconventional living arrangement. But I really need to step back and say "thanks" to Nancy. When I married Patty back in 1994 I could have never imagined a time when her mom would be living in our with house with us, let alone living with me alone. Let's put it this way, that is just not something that you typical ever imagine or think about. There is the typical "mother-in-law" kind of feeling that you see documented in some many TV shows. What is weird is that now I couldn't see it any other way. Though our family unit isn't the typical arrangement, it is so very good having Zack's grandmother live with us. Without Nancy there our home would seem that much more empty. When Patty first went into the hospital in August of 2006 the house seemed so much more empty than normal. I couldn't imagine how much more empty it would have been without Nancy being there. Over the last three years the relationship of all of us in the house has grown and changed. We all have our specific things that we do. As these years have passed I have found myself watching out for Nancy a lot more. She obviously has aged and the stress, anxiety and pain of losing Patty have made it all that much worse. The bottomline though is without Nancy our home would be that much less a home. I don't know if I say it frequently enough - but thank you Nancy for being part of Zack and my life. We appreciate all that you do for us and we are so glad to have you there with us. We hope everyone is having a great Memorial Day Weekend so far. I am sure we will have some adventures to report upon with my next post. Thanks and peace to all. - J.