Until We Meet Again...

Some of you may have noticed I’ve been MIA for the last two weeks or so. Unfortunately we have been dealing with a death in the family and I have been traveling back and forth between Los Angeles and Pennsylvania. I’m just getting settled back into my routine and thought it would be a good outlet to write. Specifically, I want to talk about Mommy.

Belinda Chase was my husband’s aunt on his mother’s side and she was the closest thing to a mother-in-law I ever got to know (K’s mother passed nearly 15 years ago). She helped to raise my husband and his brother while their mother was on tour and treated them as she treated her own children. As such, she treated me as her daughter-in-law and I was grateful for it. In fact, when my husband and I argued, Mommy would often come to my defense and help my husband to see things from a woman’s perspective. He trusted and valued her advice so much so that he semi-jokingly credits her with the longevity of our marriage thus far.

I’ll never forget my first trip to meet my husband’s family; I was so worried about how I may be received- if I would make a good impression or say something stupid. But the moment I met Mommy all of that melted away as I was embraced by her warmth and good-natured sense of humor. She was full of so much love it’s as if it spilled over because she couldn’t seem to help but let you know it in every encounter. She left the world in that same fashion- surrounded by those closest to her, telling them how much she loved them and not to grieve for her because she was happy. Her passing saddens me because I can’t pick up the phone and call her anymore, but I know we’ll see her again. In the meantime, she left behind a group of amazing children and grandchildren with her same positive outlook on life and who love in abundance as she did. I couldn’t ask for a better family to have married into.