punkinhead

That was the title I thought of this morning as I lie in bed, thinking about the day I had yesterday.  “Best Laid Plans” was a post I made a few weeks ago.  How plans can go awry, but that’s life and you have to just deal with it and adjust to change.  But, sometimes when your best laid plans go awry, it just sucks.  And yesterday sucked for me.

My employee of 14 years, my right hand, my framer, my sports person, my sale person, my Jack of All Trades person, my friend, my ‘sister’ gave me her notice yesterday.    After 13 years of 3 of us working in the office, one of us will be gone at the end of the month.  I feel sad.  I feel bereft.  I feel overwhelmed.   I feel lost.   Sure, I can hire someone new.   And it’s our slow season, so I have time.   Yes, I can train someone to answer the phones, help clients, etc., but it will take forever to teach them all of the nuances, policies, ‘what ifs’, we have in our business.   A new person won’t know the clients.   A new person won’t know the history.  A new person won’t be able to remember the name of someone when we describe a session, client, situation.  It just won’t be the same.

But, as Life Happens, I woke up, as I usually do, pretty happy.   Then I Remembered.   I feel this overwhelming loss.   And then I read the paper.   A father of 3, age 45, died suddenly after being diagnosed with cancer just a few weeks ago.   I’m 45.  Then I realized I can mope and whine all I want, but I really don’t have anything to mope and whine about, compared to this family.   I’m alive, I’m healthy, my family is healthy, and I have to be grateful and quit bemoaning the changes happening.   Sure, it will suck.  And it will be crazy busy for the 2 of us left behind.  And it will not be the same.   But, what will be will be.  And there’s nothing I can do about it.   Best Laid plans…

Sometimes I hate it when I’m right.

This past weekend we had a big family reunion – our first in years – and if I remember correctly, the first time we’d all been together since my grandfather died in 1994.   He, and my grandmother especially, would have been so pleased to see the whole family together.  She loved family gatherings, and never wanted them to end.   Someone shared the memory of Grandma not wanting to leave a party, and my grandfather being in the car and honking the horn, as she stood inside in her coat, talking a bit more.

So this weekend was about stories.  Stories that made us laugh until our ribs hurt.  Stories that made my sister laugh until she snorted (though she may deny it).   Stories that made people long gone seem a little closer.

One of my favorite is about my dear, sweet grandmother.  My grandfather was a Baptist pastor, so she had the role of helping to lead the church.   A very upstanding, proper role.   As I mentioned, she loved to get us together, and yearly she would have a Grandkid Sleepover, with all of us that were ages 6 and up, or so.   We would sleep on her living room floor, after eating her cookies, and playing Trivial Pursuit.   One night, after our grandparents were in bed, we realized, to our terror, that there was someone outside the window, staring in at us, with a nylon over their head!  We were terrified.  You can’t (or maybe you can) imagine the screams, which grew louder as this person walked into the breezeway, and then into the house.   My grandparents, somehow, were sleeping through all of this commotion, as we are about to be murdered, for sure.

Then, as this creep comes through the kitchen doorway, we figure out who it is.   It’s Grandma.  My sweet, proper grandmother, trying to scare the daylights out of her dear grandchildren.  Who would do such a thing???   My great, awesome, funny grandmother.   The one whom I can credit when my friends and family chide me for playing a trick on them.  I’ve been known to pull a prank or two, and I remember now that I do it in honor of Grandma.

So, all in all, I’d say the reunion was a success.  If you haven’t had one lately, make plans.   Call, email, or message family, and set a date.  Do it now, you won’t regret it.

You’ll talk into the night.  You’ll laugh until you cry, snort, or hurt your ribs.  You’ll make memories.  Memories to be shared at the next reunion, or 30 years later, like the story of a grandmother scaring the kabeejies out of her grandkids.

Good times, good times.   Already looking forward to next year.