happy birthday, mom

Today my mom would have turned 84. My brother, sister-in-law, nephew, and I visited her grave for the first time since the funeral.

So Kentucky, like many other states not used to serious winter, got slammed with alternating snow and wintry mix, sunny days which began melting everything, and overnight lows well below freezing which refroze everything.

The cemetery only has ground plaques. Which are all covered by 6” of snow and ice. We weren’t sure we had the right grave. The vase was full of solid ice, so we couldn’t leave flowers. And it’s freakin’ cold with a bitter wind again today. So we just went to lunch.

I was prepared for all of the big emotions hitting hard today. That has not been the case.

A little anecdote in honor of my mother:

One of my brother’s first complete sentences as a child was, “My mommy no like no.” He had a problem with diphthongs, but he was correct. Our mom did not like snow. She would have hated this winter.