Today, my mother has been gone for one month. It doesn’t really feel like she is gone. When I say gone, I mean to say that she died. She did not go away on vacation to some far-flung land to bask in the sun and drink gin and tonics all day. Although in my mind I hope that she is doing just that. In her version of heaven there is no snow and the world is all beach. Warm, sunny beach. Where you only get tan and never get burned and you never have to eat soup. Only crab cakes. I digress. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we are cleaning up both figuratively and physically. Life goes on for those of us left here without her. We still have to work and cook and clean and all the things that we do. We must tidy up and put away the things that were hers. But how do you clean up a life when it ends? These are the things adulthood is made of. The things that nobody talks about. The things that you, yourself, do not even realize until you are, in the midst of doing them.
On Friday, November 26 th , 2010 , Christmas Town , a Busch Gardens Celebration opened. This was their second year putting on such a celebration. I had been anticipating attending for the last three months and the day finally came. I loaded up my family and my parents along with one of my daughter’s friends, the day after Thanksgiving for the 4 hour drive to Williamsburg, VA . We opted out of the “Black Friday” madness going on in retail stores everywhere to trek northward from our North Carolina hometown of New Bern , to join the festivities. Now, I must say my mother and I share a birthday on November 26 th and my oldest daughter has her birthday on November 28 th so this weekend was the perfect opportunity to escape and celebrate in a different way than ever before. Everyone was excited. My mother especially was talking about the trip for weeks prior to our leaving and I had never really seen her that way before. Having been to the park 3 times in as many mont