Sorry for your terrible lose, hoping that the words offered from all of us would give you a tad of solace. Clearly, I can understand your struggle of pain, mourning and grief, even a sense of guilt for that you didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to your beloved grandma in person. But I guess, sometime it may be better for us to just let it go instead to dwell on it.
Last year at a point time when my grandma’s health condition seemed deteriorating, I was very worried and anxious. The primary reason I returned home last Dec was to make up the time that I was absent when she was in hospital. Like your grandmother , my grandma has also been a significant person cast quite influence during my early childhood and shaped my views towards world. Especially, for the years that my father was out of the country pursuing his degrees and my exhausted mother rushed in, out and between those grinding hospital shifts. It was my grandma who read me bedtime stories, tucked my in the bed, praying for her son safe return ad her grandson a good-night sleep. Many nights through my ajar bedroom door, I’d watch her back producing a long shadow over the soft-lit hallway after she kissed me and walked out my room. With my eyes open I'd listen the sound of her feet fading away from the stair cases in our awfully quite house, I‘d slowly drift away in the dreams of flying out windows over the starlit sky just like Peter Pan to visit my parents in the lab or in the ward….
Enough though my grandma and grandpa are still alive and relatively healthy these days , I know, someday a phone call across the ocean will come to notify me the inevitable. I just secretly wish the days will be postponed as further down the road as possible.
Today at lunch time as I was walking out with my lunch buddies from “Café Sage” on John Street, the early April’s sunny sky was overshadowed with dark clouds, and chilly west wind carried snow flurries swirled aground us. I couldn’t help but think that even the dimension of time itself may be infinite , yet our lives are perhaps not. So cherishing the moments with our love ones becomes imperatively important because sooner or later our time would run out in our own spaces. And unlike in video games, in reality there are no “time portal“ or “wormhole” to transport us back to the time to relive the past again.
I think taking some time off with your love ones may be the sensible way to alleviate the sorrow and possibility to heal the wound a bit faster, so do enjoy the family time with your folks in FL.
Take care, Babe.
P.S Speaking of Orlando, I’d attempt to recommend that EPCOT may be one of suitable place for you and your parents to have some good time together. The attraction there, “Soaring”, is poetically exhilarating , and it is also mild enough for your folks to enjoy as well. If your are lucky you may have a simulated fly along Californian coast line, but the drawback is the waiting time which can be brutally long, though. For you, the interactive Space Advanced Training Lab (the Orange type not the green one) and high-tech Automotive Testing Track can be two fun attractions to challenge your audacity if you brave enough to give them a try. For food, the restaurant, “Chefs de France”, in EPCOT is also not too bad to try authentic French cuisine, Its chefs do come from France. If you are not sure the menu items , order the lamb dish, I found it was pretty good. Make the reservation two days ahead as the hostess can be quite snobbish and discouraging when handling the walking-ins. BTW, if you don’t like my comment please delete it. It is just a “cut and dry”case.
Luo Hua, I'm sorry. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. Unfortunately, that's how it is for those of us in medicine, we're so busy caring for other people's families that we don't have time to look after ours.