I’ve been MIA. Writing over these past few weeks has had to take a backseat to IRL happenings. Overwhelmingly busy is where I‘ve been treading these past few weeks. I wish I could say my break was due to a hot new social media job, or I won the lottery and was breaking in the spending habit, but unfortunately it wasn’t for excitement or glamour, it was for family and the loss of a great man.

On June 29th my Father-in-law lost his battle with throat cancer.

After losing my own father to cancer when I was 16, my FIL became the closest to a father I had in a long time when my husband and I married. He was the voice of reason when everyone else was nuts and he was definitely the perfect person in my children’s eyes. He was Poppy and my kids LOVED him. It was the hardest thing in the world to wake them up at  2:48 AM to tell them that he had passed.

We cried. We laughed. We shared stories. We watched the stars – one of his favorite things to do with the kids. We cried some more. My daughter, with her whole 10 years of experience, expressed how happy she was that Poppy could finally smile again. That he was better. Trust me, it had been a very long time since we had seen him smile.

We did not have a traditional service to say goodbye. Autumn was his favorite time of the year, so when the leaves begin to turn, his ashes will be spread on his Grandfather’s property – which was his favorite place growing up. This is definitely Poppy!

Our lives are so much better for having known, and spent time with, Poppy.