Goodbye to a wonderful Lady

Today is Boxing Day.  The crazy day after Christmas Day when all the sales are on.  The "everything I didn't get for Christmas, is on sale now" day!  This is traditionally a day that we do not venture out to any stores with the exception of groceries and only if we are desperate for something to add to the turkey soup we are cooking up!  It has been somewhat quiet this year for us here in the Riggins house.  The girls are all staying home this year.  With their own kids getting older, it is nice for them to spend Christmas morning at home in their own homes.  Tanya who actually lives the closest to us, has to work through the holidays, but we will see her on the 30th.

We have been home from our great adventure almost as long at we were away from home!  We arrived home on October the 26th.  So much has happened since our arrival home. The day after we got home we surprised Ray's Mom, Skip, with a visit.  As we were home 4 days early, she was not expecting us and she was beside herself with joy.  She was so happy to her her boy back home!  She said that she was so worried that something would happen while we were away and she would not get to see us again.  I thought she was thinking that we might have a terrible accident or something. 

On Novemeber 2nd we celebrated Skip's 92nd birthday.  92 years old!  What a great long life she has lived!  She was somewhat tired waiting for dinner that night and had a wee little nap on the sofa.  After dinner, she beamed as she blew out her candles on her birthday "pie" that Ray had made for her.  She absolutley loved it when he baked a pie!  Over the next 12 days, we had many short visits with her at the Cedars where she lived.  On Friday November 9th Ray and I joined Skip at the Cedars for their Happy Hour and visited with all the residents.  Happy Hour is from 3:00-4:30 and sometimes would go on until 5:00.  At about 4:30 Ray told his Mom we had to go as we had guests coming for dinner and we would not see her over the weekend as we were going up to Kamloops to spend a couple of days with Tanya and Dean.  As we hurried off, Ray turned back to wave goodbye to his Mom.  She was drinking back her glass of wine and grinning at him while waving at the same time.

That is the memory Ray will always have of his Mom.  Skip passed away in her sleep on November the 14th.