Thankful for every minute of it …

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To be me hasn’t always been easy, but to have been someone else is unthinkable.   I am so thankful for my life, every single minute of it, that it brings tears to my silly eyes and all I can think of is Thank You Ma, Thank You Papa – what a lucky person I have been to have been your child.  Thank you for the things you did for me, the things you taught me, the experiences we shared …

… and for the privilege and responsibility of taking care of you when you needed me – the greatest gift of all.

 

 

To explore this weighty challenge further, hop over to the WP Challenge – Thankful.

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85 thoughts on “Thankful for every minute of it …”

  3. We never stop missing them do we?
    What a gorgeous couple your parents make Meredith, and their love for each other seems undiminished after so many years together. You are indeed fortunate to have had them for so long. Beautiful post and images.

    • Apparently not, Madhu. Ma said she missed her mother as much at 98 as she did at 48. It’s a bit daunting to think of those aeons of time ahead, missing them whenever something makes me think of them …
      I love those two photos – in each, such a couple. :)

    • I’m so glad someone else understands what a privilege and joy that is, to be able to give back in some measure – on top of which, it makes the circle of life complete, somehow.

    • Yes, they did live a long time – Dad said he was astounded by that too!

      Thanks for the link – I’m way behind on catching up with everyone, and I’d probably have missed you, thinking you’re not blogging these days?

      • I’m being sporadic and unpredictable, allegedly the worst possible way to blog as it confuses people :D

        I’ve posted pretty frequently on Clouds and EveryPic and I even got round to Roughseas yesterday too. I can’t keep away from it – it also means I can put off doing tedious chores and paperwork.

        • Yes, posting and reading and chatting beats chores and paperwork hands down!

          I don’t know if I’m subscribed to your other blogs – I’d better go and make sure, so your ‘sporadic’ posts will turn up in the Reader.

  11. Beautiful post…tender and compassionate. What a lovely photo of your mom and dad in their later years. Your love and devotedness shine through and I’m sure it did during the tough times when caring for them. Thank you for sharing. I know you miss them.

    • Thanks Lynne. How’s Ron’s mom doing – I think of her on that tough journey, whenever I think of Ma doing the same thing – such courage and determination. Hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving :)

      • Thanksgiving went well. Don’ t know what Christmas will bring. It is a tough journey and I am learning so much about her and myself. Truly one day at a time. Thank you for asking about her. That boosts our spirits.

        • That’s great – did you have her home for a couple of hours then, or did you all go to her for Thanksgiving? We had Papa home for a couple of hours that last Christmas and it was difficult, but wonderful beyond imagining for him, and for us. The hospital was so helpful making the arrangements, but even so, in retrospect I’de move heaven and earth to make it happen if i got the chance again.

  14. what a great pair of photos. and how interesting they’re in the same pose but have switched places. and you can feel the love in their eyes. Indeed, you are very blessed to have had them for so long. I’m thankful that I’ve had my mother all these years. She will be 90 next April, wow….

    thanks for sharing!!

    • They are a great pair of shots, aren’t they? It was a coincidence that I got the later shot and when I saw the similarity to the wedding picture I tried turning it into a black and white, but that somehow spoiled the pairing, strange to say.

      Enjoy having your mum around – what a blessing that is :)

  17. Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge: Thankful | Mirth and Motivation

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  22. I love this simple post. It warmed my heart and brought tears to my eyes. I look at those to people who shared a lifetime together (unheard of these days) and the look of love is even stronger in the second picture than in the first. You are blessed.

  24. Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge: Thankful | Marsha Lee

  25. I love the photos and the emotions you’ve shared. I’m lucky to still have my mother with us, although my father passed some years ago now. A simple, but beautifully thoughtful post.

    • Blogging’s such an interesting phenomenon, isn’t i? Sharing such personal, and yet elemental aspects of our lives seems quite natural, and yet other things you’d never, in a million years, talk about! Thanks for letting me know you enjoyed it Emily :)

  29. I do not doubt your parents’ words in return would have been equally loving and grateful for the years they enjoyed having you as their child! Simply beautiful post. ~ Kat

    • Dad’s maybe, but Ma, until almost the end, was constantly chivvying me to become her ideal of the perfect child. I was most unsatisfactory, from about four years old, she always said – especially when I didn’t deliver a grandchild … Luckily, once she knew she was about to die, she at last gave up on trying to improve me, and we had the most blissful few days of my whole life! She still never said, but how she loved me, how proud she was of me, she at last let me know by handing her life into my hands :)

  30. parents make the most enormous impact on a child’s life, you were so blessed meredith … i had wonderful parents too, but my mother struggled with depression all of her life, and i grew up away from them, living with my grandparents … your photos are full of love, which flowed on to you, oh fortunate child :) for me i am still thankful for the whole experience, they did their best all the time, and i helped my mother to heal from some of her early injuries when she was in her seventies, long after my father had died ….

    • Oh fortunate you, to have been able to help your mother heal – I can’t compare, being childless, but to have been able to help mine seems to have been the greatest gift they ever gave me. It was my choice to do so, compelled by love and the person they helped me become – anyway, it seemed like a benediction and although there’s a great gaping hole in my life, I’ve never mourned their passing – it just seems like a continuum of the perfect circle of life.

  35. I have come back to this post a few times. There is something so special about the photos you have posted that draws me back. As other readers have noted – the bond between the two people is so strong in both images. But there is something else. If a picture paints a thousand words, then these two images paint a lifetime story!

    • You’ve got it Madoqua!

      Thank you for coming back again to see what I wanted to say by posting those two photographs from the beginning and end of a lifetime together. What a lifetime together will do to love! :)

  36. Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge: Thankful | Humbled Pie

  38. What a beautiful pairing of photographs! What sweet words. My father died when I was eight, but I moved back to Detroit to live with and care for my mother during the last months of her life. They were the hardest, most devastating, most mentally and physically exhausting of my life. And the greatest gift I could have given to her and to myself. I understand what you are saying, and you say it so beautifully.

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