Going There Today....

I never understood the love my father had for my mother...Until after my mother's passing and I watch my Dad mourn her death.

 His love for her (and I will assume her love for him) was difficult to see by the time Kelli and I were old enough to understand what love was....Addiction, mental illness and choices by both had eclipsed their love and buried it under years of argument and anger.

As a young teenager until I was a young mother myself, I thought they despised each other.

Then Mom died...

Dad was devastated. They had been apart for twenty years and his reaction surprised me, but for the first time I began to understand that they had shared a deep love for each other. Dad had deep regret that things hadn't been different for them. He expressed that regret often. "You know, I loved your Mother." he would say with considerable emotion....time had healed much and most hurts had been forgotten, I guess.

As Dad's dementia took hold, his love for Lynne was never forgotten...As I watched his life end I came to understand that for my parents, what was not possible in this life could be possible in heaven. Where they would finally be free from addiction, illness and pain and their love could be unrestrained.

Today Grant and I went to the temple and did Mom and Dad's work, allowing them, if they choose the blessings of a forever family.

I am grateful the blessings of the temple and the peace and clarity and hope and renewed courage I felt there today.

{I realised today that next Saturday would have been Mom and Dad's 50th wedding anniversary....}