The best part of the summer is the Sluder Family Reunion.
We missed it last year because we were waiting on someone to make his way into the world.
This year however, we were bound and determined to make it.
Even if we were released from the hospital a day before the drive.
And we stopped in St. George to see Tom's Grandmother whom the
Doctors had said they could do no more for in the hospital.
She was released to hospice care.
She was sent home to her daughter's house in St. George and we stopped on
our way up to see her for what we thought could be our last time.
And when we came into the room, I noticed her eyes and how dark they looked.
I noticed that she seemed to look through us.
And she said "Tom you came home!"
She would not eat or drink.
She would purse her lips when it was offered.
And she did infact look like she would not make it much longer.
And she gazed at our kids the entire time.
And as Tom hugged her goodbye,
I could not help to think this was the last time we would see her for a while.
Goodbyes make me cry and so I never said it.
And she did pass on the 26th of June.
Grandpa had passed on the 26th of June last year.
They had been married more than 60 years.
And Tom told me later that the look in Grandma's eyes, he has seen before in Bradley's.
I'm grateful he is still here.
That he can roll in his Grandma's grass and smell his Grandma's barn.
That he can sit on the bridge over Grandma's creek and hang his feet over the edge.
That he can hear Aunt Jennifer's songs.
And smell the hamburgers cooking.
And hear the candy cannon boom.
And that we can give him tastes of ice cream and whipped cream.
And that Aunt Beth can hold and squeeze him and tell him how much she loves him.
I am grateful for everyday I have with him.
And that he has opened my eyes to the little things.
And that he reminds me how fragile life is, everyday.
