"Mommy, look!" Her eyes sparkled with pride. "I packed food."
I remember examining the bag and saying to her that I needed to wash them and remove the green parts and that I didn't have time to do it at that moment, so just leave it on the counter, and I'll get to it, but I never did, because six hours of airline phone calls and discovering that the funeral might possibly be Thurs night, we booked flights first thing Wed morning. I rushed off to teach class that evening, not wanting to leave my students in a lurch, then stopped by Keilah's house to hand off teaching materials for my Wed class and lists of things that poor Keilah volunteered to take care of for us. Got home at midnight, packed for me and the kids, slept for maybe an hour, got up to load the car in the morning with Thomas and realized....wait a minute, where is that bag of strawberries? I could just imagine them decaying somewhere in the house when we returned. I asked Kyra, and she pointed to her belly, "Yummy, in my tummy."
"What do you mean? Kyra, did you eat them?"
"Uh huh! I eat all of it."
"Did you eat the green parts too?"
"No, I threw them in the trash can."
I ran to the trash and convinced myself that the dried up green bits used to belong to strawberries and then had to deal with a washing machine of wet clothes coated with sludgy stuff that had exploded from a diaper that somehow got mixed up in the wash. (First time Thomas is the offender.) Did a quick search on the Internet and was pleased to discover that redoing the load with salt dissolves the sludge. Left the laundry going...another problem for Keilah to deal with. Then we drove to the airport with our usual cushion of time, not realizing that normally we catch a 2am flight not a 9am flight, which involves threading through traffic. We get to the check-in counter exactly half an hour before the flight. The attendent said we made it, only if Thomas didn't have to park the car. So with no mercy, he told our flight that we weren't going to be travelling with them and then discovered that Thomas had the parking ticket in his wallet and that he had accidentally taken the car keys. (Mess number 3 for Keilah to figure out). We ended up getting rebooked for an awful 10 hour layover in Seattle, which is where I am writing from.
Kyra and I are spending the layover collecting photos of Grandpa Sung Duk. As you can see, he is always smiling. What an incredibly loving man, husband, father. He was accustomed to always taking care of everyone. The photos show a man who loved his childen, grandchildren, and always placed other's needs before his own.
Kyra and I spent a lot of time talking about death. She said, "Kyra die and then Kyra see Grandpa and Jesus." And I start to understand what she means when she says, "I am not sad, I'm happy."
I guess this is the way I should grieve. To celebrate a life lived. To remember how life looks from a child's viewpoint. To slow down and try to savor every moment. To love one another.
We are in awe of our friends who have rallied to support us during this time. Wow, I only hope that I am as thoughtful as you all can be.
