December 4 Sadness

Monday:  Last week was kind of a long one. I was sick for most of it--so that wasn't fun. I had to cancel Cal on Wednesday. AND I had to cancel Kaity on Thursday. The stomach flu I had from Sunday through late Tuesday somehow triggered a rather serious episode of reflux (which I didn't realize at the time because I thought it was just my stomach flu worsening)--but once I identified the problem and got back on medication for the reflux, I was able to eat again and feel much better.

In the middle of all of this, though, Jesse phoned me late Thursday with sad news. It was concerning our new friend, Ayden. His mom suddenly died on Wednesday afternoon. She was only 35 and had not been sick. There is a family history of heart defects, but she had not had any outward signs of a problem until Wednesday when a blood clot went to her heart and killed her.

Our friend, Ayden, is an only child. He and Kaity have gotten to be very good friends. Kaity was devastated by the news and was very concerned for Ayden. When I saw Kaity Saturday afternoon for a few hours, we talked a lot about Ayden's loss. We decided to attend the visitation for his mom on Sunday, which we did. Diana brought Kaity and stayed to pay her respects as well. Diana had met Ayden's mom once (I think) and had other phone conversations with her. Kaity and I had never met her; but we have met Ayden's grandpa Lyle (his mom's father) on several occasions. We are sad for this whole family.

When we visited with Ayden at the funeral home yesterday, he was so heartbroken. He would walk to his mom's casket, put his face in his hands and just sob. We asked him to take us around to all of the pictures of his mom that were on poster boards and displays and tell us about her. Ayden was very glad to do this--and smiled and laughed at some of the memories.

Kaity and I went to the funeral today. I picked Kaity up from school and brought her back afterwards. It was hard to be there, but Kaity really wanted to be there for Ayden. We really did not get to spend any time with him today--he was one of the pall bearers and was closely surrounded by a lot of family during the funeral service. I returned a very sad Kaity to school by about 12:30 this afternoon.

"Oh, Lord, please be very near to Ayden, his dad, his grandparents, his aunt and cousins as they process this loss. Please pour out your mercy on this family."