Mom! Dude!

.....contained every drama imaginable between two teenage girls and a hot-tempered grandma like my mom. But before that even, I managed to piss off my step-daughter and my step-son....royally. Hubby, upon first being admitted to the hospital after midnight on December 30th, was only supposed to be in the hospital for one day, just long enough to have IV antibiotics administered, and hopefully get his pneumonia under control. We fully expected to bring him on either the evening of the 30th, or the morning of the 31st. All during the day of the 30th, however, he starred in his own little comedy show. His brain had been oxygen deprived from the pneumonia just long enough to make him Loopy, with a capital L. As a matter of fact, he was just plain bat -bleep- crazy. He thought the newscasters on the TV were actually there in the room talking to him. And he was talking back to them, discussing the local news, politics, etc. Then he thought he was a pizza delivery driver, kept saying he had ...

It’s a good thing we had such a wonderful time for Alex’s first birthday, because the next day, the bottom fell out! Hubby had started developing a cough the day before, but managed to keep it in check for the day of the party. By the following day, he was really feeling rough. I had to go back to work, but hubby reassured me he would be OK, with Adrian’s help. Adrian had the day off from work, too, so she agreed to help keep an eye on both my boys. I spoke to hubby once during that day, around noontime. He sounded awful, so I told him to take some cough medicine and hit the sack. I didn’t hear from him the rest of the day, but that didn’t necessarily worry me; I just figured he was sleeping. When I got home, I found Adrian sitting on the floor in the family room. The hallway door was shut, the heat was cranked up to hellish, the baby was in his crib in his room, screaming, and hubby was nowhere to be found. I asked Adrian where he was and she said to check our bedroom. She said she th...

So as Spring of 2005 moved forward, we began to settle into life as a family of four: my husband (the stay-at-home dad), my husband’s granddaughter whom we had informally adopted (Adrian), our newborn son (Alex) and me, the working mom. We proceeded through Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day with tons of pictures to show for it. March 20, 2005, the first of Angel’s birthdays without her. I bought a heart-shaped plaque inscribed with a memorial poem, her name and her dates of birth and death engraved on it, and gave it to hubby on her birthday. We hung it on a tree outside, since Angel loved the outdoors and all living things, right where we could see it at all times and be reminded of her. We also began a tradition on that day that continues even now. We lit a candle in her honor and spent an hour, beginning at 7PM, with our thoughts and hopes and prayers focused solely on her. We talked, we laughed, we cried...we let go with all our memories of Angelia. She came back to us for a bl...