A Sunday Morning...A Lot Like Today

"It's July 1st," my wife said this morning as we waited for our day to begin.

"Yup," I replied. It wasn't until I saw my sister's Facebook post that I realized it was the anniversary of my mother's passing.

Eleven years.

I've got two reference points when it comes to my parent's deaths since they're both gone. Eleven years after my father died (almost to the day...), I was living in Provo, Utah, learning how to speak/write/read the Danish language in preparation to live for two years in Europe and serve a church mission. I grew up in those eleven years, from a child barely turned eight-years old to someone who could legally vote and someone who was moving away from his home state for the first time in his life.

Funny how time is relative. The past eleven years, my kids have made that kind of progress. I still feel the same, except for more aches, more body weight, more problems with the house and the cars.

I found myself outside several times today. Eleven years ago today it was Sunday, a little warmer than it was today. I was at my home across the street from where I grew up, across the street where my mother lay in her bed--the same place she'd been the entire previous week, unmoving, unconscious. I got a call from my siblings asking me to come over. I did and within the hour, she was gone.

While out tonight I snapped a picture of my childhood home. It looks different now. The landscaping's changed, we never had a basketball standard out front, nor did we have a big tree on the corner of the lot. Cars were parked behind--an option no longer available. Both my parents passed away on a Sunday, my father in February 1974, my mother July 1st, 2007. The both died in their bedroom, both in the morning.

"It's July 1st." It won't always fall on a Sunday like it did today. It will always fall in summer. Yes, it was a little cooler than the same day eleven years ago. I hope my parents enjoyed the day, hanging out together and remembering the day as a reunion, not a separation. I'm sure they did.