Gone, Gone, Gone

She's gone.

Tabitha and I flew to Utah on Saturday afternoon to join my mom for her final days before she left on her mission. Saturday night was spent with her and my siblings, and their spouses, for a celebratory/business dinner at Ruth's Chris. My sister arranged for us to have a private room so we could be our regular, rowdy selves and not bother the rest of the diners :). We got the business portion of the dinner out of the way quickly and spent the rest of dinner teasing each other, talking about dad, and oogling over Tabitha. It was a VERY delightful evening.
Sunday was the "not farewell", as mom lovingly called it. She was only going to be bearing her testimony, so it wasn't supposed to be a big deal. Well, I was doing just dandy until the opening song and then I started to get teary eyed. I quit singing because there it is virtually impossible to hit the right notes and be choked up at the same time. Mom bore her testimony first. She did a fantastic job. I won't try to recap it because you really just had to be there. I cried... but that isn't very surprising.
She finished and sat down next to me. I sighed with relief because I was thinking that was the end... I had survived the worst part and I could put my tissues away. Well, then most of the people who got up after her talked about how much she meant to them and how much she'd be missed and how she and my dad had always been such a good example to them. More tears from me. It was a very special meeting.
We went home for the Open House that had been planned by Jessie, my sister, and Andrea, my sister-in-law. It was wonderful. The food was beautiful and tasted SO good. Check out this spread:

There were more tears as mom's friends came to bid her farewell. She has gotten close to many of the ladies in her ward since my dad passed away. She has relied on them, and they have relied on her. It was hard to watch her say goodbye to them.



Tabitha spent most of the day just like this. Sleeping on Jessie. I didn't hear any complaints from the adoring Aunt.
After the guests left we spent some time taking pictures (thank you Steve for the pics) and then Jessie said her goodbyes. When it was just mom and Tabitha and I left at the house I asked mom what was left on her list of "to do's". After all, she had started with about 6 pages of things she needed to do before she left. She asked me to sew small pockets into her slips for her money and credit cards. I did that and then we went to bed.


Monday morning I moseyed upstairs to find my mom checking the traffic on the computer. I casually asked her what time she planned on leaving for the MTC, fully expecting to have at least an hour with her before she left. She told me 8, which was 15 minutes away. Let me take a minute to explain that my mom preferred that I not take her to the MTC because she thought it would be too emotional. She was going to drive to my brother, Chris's house and he was going to take her. We opted to say goodbye at her house. So, she spent her final 15 minutes with Tabitha and I. When the time came we said goodbye and off she drove. It wasn't nearly as bad as I had pictured it would be. There were some tears, but no breakdown.

Oh how I will miss my mom. She'll be great... we'll be great, but you can bet I'll be counting the days until we go to see her next summer.