January 2018 was rough. On January 8th, my Father died. It was unexpected. I had received an email from him only hours earlier with pictures of his newest “toy” in his workshop. I am 1400 miles away and felt paralyzed while the details and the confirmation made their way to me then I felt completely helpless when I knew for sure. For my Mom’s sake, I felt comforted in knowing that my younger brother had rushed there from an hour away and was taking care of Mom and relaying information despite his state of shock. I arranged for travel for my family and for someone to take care of our three dogs. We were scheduled to fly out at 2pm on January 10th.
Around 5am on the 10th, I was woken by strange breathing sounds coming from our amazing and adored dog, Lola. There was a rush to the emergency vet, a crushing diagnosis, and a heartbreaking decision to euthanize her. All before 7am. We chose to have the kids there with us as Lola was put to sleep. Was it the right thing to do to have the kids there? I don’t know but it is what we decided in that moment.
That morning was surreal. Lola was fine and now she is gone. Two days earlier, my Dad was fine then he was gone. Then we were packing. Then we were on a plane.
