Our last kitty Gizmo passed in 2011 and we (my wife Judy and I) never thought we'd have another cat.
Then via a stroke of luck, our neighbors found a kitten in the bush by their front porch. As they were packed and ready to leave town, they needed someone to take care of the cat, find it's owner, find it a home, or whatever. We had a few feral cats in the neighborhood, so we assumed it may be a feral kitten and prepared a bed in our garage figuring to feed and care for the kitten until it decided to leave.
That was 10 years ago, and sadly the kitten left us on Tuesday April 6th, 2022.
While sad from his passing, we are very happy to have been lucky enough to have been in the right place at the right time 10 years earlier.
There are two things that are sticking with me at the moment.
The first is to take more pictures. When someone passes, your memory of them begins to fade that very day. To some degree I feel like that's some of the grief that we feel, we don't want them to slip from our memory, but life marches on and it is inevitable. Pictures help preserve the memory and trigger the positive memories. They are invaluable. My mother was a photographer and when she passed last December, we spent days, weeks going thru photo albums and disks full of pictures of friends, family and experiences. It is an awesome reminder of an incredible person and life. Those memories captured in perpetuity are a great present from my wonderful mother to our family.
The second thing on my mind is to be brave enough to love. Sure it hurts when someone passes, but the love experienced is far greater than the pain of it's removal. We learn throughout our lives to avoid things that cause us pain, touching a hot stove, skinning our knees, checking the street both ways before we cross, be careful of strangers, etc. It may be natural then to avoid Love due to the inevitable pain that will come from it's removal or the disappointment of Love unrequited. Do not let those other life lessons change the way you approach your fellow man. We are all of the human condition and have our share of challenges and disappointments. Those things should draw us closer together, not force us apart. Be brave, ask how someone is doing and really mean it .... be curious, spend the time, for it is fleeting.
