A Follow-up

A while back, I wrote an extremely long series of posts (here, here, and here) which ultimately led up to this photograph. Even with all that I said, there were a couple of things I wanted to add. One of these things is something I never realized until I was writing the post. The other though, is something I think about quite often.

Back when I was writing about the photo, I was working out the timeline and thinking about everything that led up to when it was taken. As I was working through it all, I slowly began to realize that the photo was taken less than a month after Sam’s prolonged hospital stay. I was shocked by this - to the point where I had to go back a few more times, just to be sure.

When I think back on the period of time, I remember it as if everything else in the world had been frozen in time, that nothing else was happening. I had forgotten that other things were still going on and that life was moving forward.

But, that's just one thing.

Almost exactly a year before this photo was taken, I had a phone conversation with Dad. He and Mom were leaving the next day for a short vacation and before he left, he called me to touch base.

The conversation was nothing out of the ordinary, but one of the things he asked me about was what my plans were for my car. I told him about my Master Plan (buried somewhere in part three) and he just laughed. We talked about it a little bit more, he wished me luck, and that was it.

I figured I would let Dad know how I made out when he got back from his trip. But of course, that never happened. Dad died the night before he was to head back home and I never saw or spoke to him again.

Through all of the years since, I've thought about this a lot.

I think about how it was just a normal, everyday conversation - nothing special, nothing out of the ordinary - but it just happened to be our last.

And I often think about this when it comes to someone I love. What words, what feelings will I leaving them with, at the end of some random, some normal, some everyday conversation?