Pay it forward

My mother was buried this past weekend. The ceremony felt odd due to it just being immediate family, staying socially distant from each other, not having a gathering afterwards, etc.

I brought three roses for her (three for her three daughters) and my son brought this rose for her. It was his first funeral so for it be the funeral of his grandmother made him have mixed feelings. He didn’t quite know how to feel or what to do with the feelings he had. It was important to me to make sure he knew that whatever his feelings were, they were normal. Funerals are hard and noone wants to go to them. He did say he was glad she was happy now. (Alzheimer’s is hard. He hated the way it changed her. and has truly missed her fun personality.) I am so proud that this is what he was focusing on. Funerals are hard enough for adults; children just don’t know how to process their feelings.

After the ceremony, we went through Starbucks drive thru. The person ahead of us paid for our coffees, etc. It was so sweet, unexpected, and brought tears to my eyes. If only they knew where we had just been and how their small gesture meant everything to me at that moment. We paid for the person behind us and hoped maybe they would continue to pay it forward. I will start doing this from now on. You never know who needs it. 

I hope you will pay it forward as well. It can mean all the difference to someone no matter how small the gesture.