Day 154: It has been a week of GOODBYE around here. In Towel World it was about saying goodbye to loved ones, past and future, with the memorials we create. It was also about saying goodbye to regret and perfection, and it was about a series called “The Making of Saying Goodbye.”
Sometimes death gives us time to leave remembrances. It lets us say goodbye. We’re given time to collect our thoughts and say the meaningful things that are in our hearts. And sometimes we step off a curb and get hit by a bus and our last words to our family are “Don’t forget to unload the dishwasher when you get home.”
The thing about writing the series last year, is that I spent a lot of time thinking about the ways we say goodbye. When you’re the writer, you can write and rewrite until the moment feels perfect. But death doesn’t afford us rewrites.
A few years ago I had a cancer scare. I wrote pre-surgery letters to each of my children and my husband, in the event of, well, no time for a goodbye. When I woke up in my hospital room, I promptly shredded those letters, relieved they weren’t necessary. Should I have torn them up? Maybe not. So, I’m starting again. I’m leaving a trail, like breadcrumbs on Hansel and Gretel’s path. A memory here. A memory there.
We said goodbye to my husband’s childhood home last night. As I walked through the house one last time, my memory filled every single empty corner with a memory. Every single corner. I want that experience for the people in my life. I want to create so many memories for them, that even if there is a bus, they won’t have only those pre-surgery goodbye letters to hold onto. I want every one of their corners filled with a memory. That’s the way I want to say goodbye. #MomsCompanyTowels #SayingGoodbye #DeathDoesntAffordRewrites #aMemoryInEveryCorner
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