Patty Mayeux Blog

We think life runs in a straight line. But the dash between a life’s beginning and ending years, as posted on gravestones, is really a rectangular box that, when enlarged, reveals hills and dips and even backward steps of ragged years. Those detours and redirects signify an interesting and engaging life. Many blips in my own decades-long dash began as disappointment or sadness but morphed into acceptance and even blessings. Some happy twists have led to a life unimagined. When both our daughters lived and worked overseas, I grieved the geographic distance, made bearable by skype and then zoom and facetime. Pivoting turned grief to joy when long and world-informing visits to “exotic” places became our new reality, the deep experiences in foreign lands replacing homey Sunday dinners. 

Today, I pivot while grieving the passing of my father-in-law. There is a natural gap in our daily lives, as big as the hole in our hearts. But I will hear his voice in my dreams, alongside the visions of those who have passed before. His spirit lives on and I’m thankful for the wellspring of loving and joyous memories during the years we shared on this not-so-straight line we call life.