Yesterday in the early afternoon someone near and dear passed away. My Mother in Law, Dori, crossed over quietly and without complaint. It was fitting that she die that way because that was how she lived her life, quietly and without complaint. She succumbed to cancer. I believe the official type was throat cancer. She was diagnosed in late January and now she is gone.
I consider myself an extremely lucky individual for having known her. I have heard all the “mother in law” jokes over the years and I can honestly say that none of that applied. She was an incredible women. She managed to raise two wonder children as a single parent, earn a living, buy and pay for a house and never asked for help. She never whined about a glass ceiling, and she never considered herself too weak. She never considered that she could not do something. She just made up her mind to do it and then she did it. She was an independent women but she was kind and generous to a fault. I have known her for 35 years and in that entire time I cannot think of anything negative to say. I am not just saying that because we never speak ill of the dead, I am saying it because it is the absolute truth.
She was known as Dori, Mom, MaMa, and GG, depending on which generation was addressing her. GG was how she was known to her great grandchildren (GG was short for Great Grandma). She had two children, four grandchildren, three step grandchildren, and three great grandchildren. And she was the unofficial grandmother of all the children in the neighborhood. The more I think of the lives she impacted, the longer the list gets.
I have previously experienced the death of both my parents. Losing my mother in law hit just as hard and hurt just as bad. I will truly miss her, as will we all. But I very grateful that I was so fortunate to have known her I know my life has been enriched by this experience.
Goodbye Dori, see you in a while!
What are your thoughts?