Made it home. Good to be back, but it was hard to leave today. As we drove away from the house, I realized that it’s the first time I’ve left that house without my mother telling me that she loved me.

Had a couple of cards here, including one from Allen Lepke’s parents. His father is going through treatment for lung cancer. They have been in my prayers and will continue to be there. From what Amy’s told me, it sounds like Allen is spending a lot of time with his dad. He won’t regret a minute of it. We also got a card from a neighbor and the SIL of Amy Geraets, who lost a parent recently. So many losses. Also had a number of emails to get through. Only phone message was from someone who was incredibly snotty because Amy hadn’t called to tell her the La Leche meeting was cancelled on Sat. Pissed me off a bit, but there is no way the woman could have known.

Dad took us out to lunch again, once again to McDonalds in Pipestone. He said he wanted the kids to burn off some energy. They did that and more though neither really slept on the way home.

I kept Dad company on his errands today. We first stopped at the post office so Dad could get the thank you cards in the mail. The rural carrier was there and gave Dad his mail. Another 20 cards. I worked on getting them open as we completed the errands.

We stopped at the office supply store in Slayton to get prices on the easels and bulletin boards. We then went to buy some birthday cards, then to the drug store so Dad could get some reprints of a photo of Mom with her best friend from when she was a girl. Mom was about 15 in the photo. Her friend wanted a copy, I did as well. We then stopped at the local paper for the "Card of Thanks" ad to go into the paper. Dad had written it up yesterday evening and asked me to look it over (Mom’s old role, to check our punctuation, spelling, grammar, etc.

Then we went to the bank to drop off the death certificate. Then to the florist. Dad is the treasurer for both the first responders and the fire dept. Yep, none of those geniuses thought to pay the bills and submit for personal reimbursement. Dad ended up paying those bills. He also got some contact information about a woman he’d coached in track who ended up being one of Mom’s nurses last December. Dad is going to call to thank her.

From there, we drove to Avoca to the insurance agent, then back home. Dad got the money together and took it to the bank (more money in the cards today). He wasn’t comfortable in leaving that much money sitting in the house while he’d be away.

We got packed up and headed out. It was tough saying goodbye to Dad after lunch. I know how much pain I’m feeling, but I have Amy and the kids to share it with. The person he had to share with is gone.