Monday, October 19, 2009

The Bathroom

As almost everybody knows, Jack died while taking a shower. He was using the shower, as he always did, that was just off the master bedroom. It was "his" bathroom. I almost never used it except if I had to get up in the middle of the night to pee.

Ever since he died, it's been weird using that bathroom. I could still see what had happened there back in March. I went in there even less than I had before. I didn't clean it because it basically wasn't being used hardly at all. And I just didn't want to face it.

I was talking to a friend about this recently, and she suggested that it might be good for me on more than one level to clean it myself. I was thinking of asking someone else or hiring someone to do it. But what she said made sense. So, last week, when I was doing other cleaning around the house, I did it. I cleaned the bathroom. The shower. The toilet. The sink. The mirror. Threw out his used razors. Swept the floor.

You know, I feel better for having done that chore myself. The anticipation was worse than the actual doing of the task. And it feels better in there in more ways than one. I'm comfortable using it finally. My thanks to my friend for the advice. I'm glad I did it.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Heart Walk 2009

This blog entry is way overdue. Better late than never.


On 10/3, the Heart Association had its annual Heart Walk in Seattle. I decided to do it this year as a way to remember Jack and also for research into congenital heart defects. So, I had shirts made up with Jack's picture on them for me and the girls.
They closed down the Alaskan Way Viaduct for this. For those not familar with Seattle, it's a raised highway that runs past a lot of the Seattle waterfront. During the walk, the viaduct was wall-to-wall people. It was pretty cool to be a part of something so large.

We were able to meet up with our friends, Wyndi, Steven & Izzie, and walk with them. They made it so much easier. They helped look after Sarah, and even let her ride in Izzie's stroller for awhile, plus on their shoulders for a bit. Gabby did the whole thing in her stroller. I had some help pushing her along the way, but I did most of the walk pushing 26 plus pounds of kid on top of the walk.
Sarah & Izzie & Izzie's dad, Steven

The walk was a total of 5K. That's around 3.6 miles, I think. We did it in just over an hour. We had fun doing it, and I certainly got my exercise for the day! I raised just ofer $700 for the AHA, and a total of $1.1 million was raised in the Seattle area. My thanks to everyone who contributed and supported us in our efforts!
The 3 of us after the walk wearing our matching shirts