The sad episodes of 2010.

While this year was filled with SO MANY HAPPY, BLISSFUL moments and exciting adventures, we also had to deal with 2 very unexpected and particularly painful losses.

On August 1st, my grandmother passed away. She was … years old and fell asleep in her bed. She was not in pain; she did not die in a foreign hospital bed, but in the house that had been her home for decades.

Not having her around on Christmas this year was brutal, especially for my father. But I miss her terribly and there are so many things I regret NOT having talked to her about. She died 6 days after I got married and never even met my husband.

I have never lost someone that close to me and it was the hardest thing I ever had to go through. I don‘t know how I‘ve made it through the funeral. All I remember is wanting to spare my dad all his pain. I would have done anything not to see him suffer so very much.

I remember how happy she was when she heard that I had decided to come back from the WILD WILD WEST (LOL). She always felt uneasy about the thought of her granddaughter living so far away. [I often wonder what she‘d say about my sister being in Africa now… She‘d be „not amused“]

I remember our very last phone call and how much fun we had, we joked around about the stock market (for whatever reason…), my dad and so much more. It is a stupid thing to say, but it was a GOOD last phone call.

Up until the very last moment of her life, she was witty, had my kind of humor and interested in everything, she knew about sports, politics, and the daily happenings in the world. I loved the discussions I had with her and I could always learn something for life.

I go and visit her grave from time to time and just talk to hear for a few hours. It feels good to have a place to visit, but I will always regret not having seen her more often in the last year.

Rest in peace, Mimama. I love you and I will ALWAYS miss you.

Then, later this month, while Andreas and I were on vacation in the Dominican Republic, we got a phone call telling us that my grandfather‘s older brother had suddenly passed away at the age of 91.

I am not sure how much I should share about him on this blog. So, all I will say is that he was a great, loving, kind, intelligent man, mentally and physically fit, even at his great age.
He too, will be deeply missed.

Losing Mimama and Uncle Hans showed me again that you should and are not allowed to ever take anything or anyone for granted. Everything can be over in the blink of an eye.