Heavy heart
Last week I mentioned my Mother-in-Law was very sick and in fading. She passed away yesterday just shy of her 87th birthday. On the one hand, I am glad she isn’t suffering, but it doesn’t make it easier to think she won’t be around anymore.
I met my mother-in-law on December 26th, 1993. I had just started to date my husband (we met the night before Thanksgiving of the same year). As you can see from the photo above, my husband has 10 brothers and sisters, so meeting his family was quite an event. I had to figure out who his siblings were, who their spouses were and what kids belong to who! I remember the following week trying to remember all of their names!
Anyway, when David and I got to his parents house for Christmas, his Mom was picking up her sister to bring back to the house. I was standing in the kitchen, meeting everyone, and when David introduced me to her, she came right up to me, put her hands on my cheeks and said “Hello Jennifer!!!” We hit it off right off the bat. In the beginning of our relationship, since she lived in the same town as us, I would stop by her house if I had the day off. She always enjoyed having people over, and it wasn’t unusual for her to whip out a bottle of wine and some cheese and crackers for us to enjoy!
Once David and I were married, I worked at a bank literally 1/2 block away from her house. She would invite me over for lunch, or I could just call and ask if I could stop by. I called it Cafe Margaret’s, because as soon as I got there she would have several different kinds of cold cuts and cheeses, different kinds of breads, chips, pickles, it was like a mini party!
When our first son was born, she offered to take care of him for the first 6 months when I went back to work part time. Just knowing that he was in such capable hands made it that much easier for me to go back to work. I would walk to her house after I was done, and frequently she would have him in her lap and they would be swinging on the porch swing watching the cars go by.
She also made it possible for my husband and I to train for the Chicago marathon 2 years in a row. The kids were smaller and she offered to come over (EARLY!!!) on Saturdays to watch the kids while David and I did our long runs. It was at least 6 months of that, and we did that in 2005 and 2006. Without her we never would have been able to do that. When we got back from our long runs, we would sit at our dining room table and we would bring out leftover pizza from the night before and tell her about our runs and just catch up on the gossip of our huge family. I’m going to miss you Margaret!!
So, I’ll be taking the next few days off from blogging, spending time with family celebrating her life.