Life runs on....
...but death is so damn final. It was weird not visiting Bob and Deb on Saturday like I usually do. I didn't get to tell Bob about the 21 miler that Suzanne, Paula and I did the day after we said goodbye to him, or how I found a shotgun in a case in the school parking lot while I waited for Paula and Suzanne. I called the police and while they were grateful that I called them so some kid didn't find the gun, they were irritated that I had touched the butt of the gun and even more irritated when I said I should have known better cause I watched CSI reruns. That same run, we saw a bride to be standing on a rock in her front yard - no one was taking pictures...she was just standing there. All of these things I would have told Bob, as well as how an old guy last week told us we were breaking the law.
"Did you know you are breaking the law?" he said as his car slowed down.
"How so" we asked, thinking he was going to be one of those cranky old farts who was mad at us because we were running on the road or even worse, some pervert.
"Because," he said, "It is against the law to be both cute and in shape".
We loved it. Younger women would have been offended and written him off as a dirty old man. We older girls just feel complemented by sexual harassment in the form of old guy jokes!
I did not get to tell Bob about these things but I did get to say goodbye to him the Friday before he discontinued his life support. I did get to read to him what I was going to say at his funeral, as did his best friend Tom. Before Paula and I went to say our goodbyes that Friday, she wanted to know what we could bring him.
"What do you mean? He can't move his arms or legs. He can't eat. He is gonna die on Monday. We can't bring him anything".
But then I had an idea. "Let's flash him" I proposed. Paula wasn't convinced.
But that Friday, when Deb got up to go to the bathroom, I said to Bob "We have a gift for you and it comes from the heart. We are baby boomers and I am a small town girl so you know this is a gift not anyone would get".
I looked at Paula and said "One, Two, Three" and we lifted up our shirts to show him our 54 year old bra encased boobs. At least I had on a pretty pink bra.
He smiled and laughed through his deflated trach cuff. "If this is heaven then I think I will like it".
Then he had us put on a CD - a new song by Paul McCartney called "The end of the end". We cried, said goodbye and he went on to die on Monday.
We did get to say goodbye, which is a lot more than most people get to do.
But life does run on and so do I. I will run the St. George Marathon and Bob says he will be there. I will put the names of friends I want to run for on the back of my bib and think of them through the miles - those like Bob who are gone and those who are here but can't run.
Tonight I signed up for the Austin marathon too - just because I am still here and just because I can.
"Did you know you are breaking the law?" he said as his car slowed down.
"How so" we asked, thinking he was going to be one of those cranky old farts who was mad at us because we were running on the road or even worse, some pervert.
"Because," he said, "It is against the law to be both cute and in shape".
We loved it. Younger women would have been offended and written him off as a dirty old man. We older girls just feel complemented by sexual harassment in the form of old guy jokes!
I did not get to tell Bob about these things but I did get to say goodbye to him the Friday before he discontinued his life support. I did get to read to him what I was going to say at his funeral, as did his best friend Tom. Before Paula and I went to say our goodbyes that Friday, she wanted to know what we could bring him.
"What do you mean? He can't move his arms or legs. He can't eat. He is gonna die on Monday. We can't bring him anything".
But then I had an idea. "Let's flash him" I proposed. Paula wasn't convinced.
But that Friday, when Deb got up to go to the bathroom, I said to Bob "We have a gift for you and it comes from the heart. We are baby boomers and I am a small town girl so you know this is a gift not anyone would get".
I looked at Paula and said "One, Two, Three" and we lifted up our shirts to show him our 54 year old bra encased boobs. At least I had on a pretty pink bra.
He smiled and laughed through his deflated trach cuff. "If this is heaven then I think I will like it".
Then he had us put on a CD - a new song by Paul McCartney called "The end of the end". We cried, said goodbye and he went on to die on Monday.
We did get to say goodbye, which is a lot more than most people get to do.
But life does run on and so do I. I will run the St. George Marathon and Bob says he will be there. I will put the names of friends I want to run for on the back of my bib and think of them through the miles - those like Bob who are gone and those who are here but can't run.
Tonight I signed up for the Austin marathon too - just because I am still here and just because I can.
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