Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Heavier Than the Box!


Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee






Our friend ordered a coat online not long ago.  When it got here he took it out of the box saying how light the box felt!

He took tried it on.  He said how strange it was ... the coat he'd ordered ... was ... heavier than the box!  

Isn't that strange how the contents of a box can actually feel heavier than than the box it came in?






Note by this Author:

True story ... it amazed me how the coat felt heavier than the box it came in!

True story owned, written by Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee.

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

I Was on the Other Side









I smiled as I waved to him
He looked straight at me
I smiled brighter knowing he'd see me

My smile began to fade as I realized
He couldn't see me no matter how I waved
Because I was on the other side

The other side of a tinted glass
In the vehicle I sat in
That's when I knew in my Heart

That our loved ones who have died
Must do ... try to smile, wave
Comfort, hug us but we don't see, feel

Why?  Because they are on the other side
Only once in a while will the veil slip
One will be able to see, hear their loved ones

Just like that tinted glass I sat behind
If I had just simply rolled the window down
My friend would have seen me smiling, waving

When I look around I try hard to see
If possible to see a place where the 'glass isn't tinted'
Maybe see Tommy ... my mother, brother ... loved ones

So far no luck ... I won't give up
Because just maybe ... maybe
One day I might see to the ... other side






I wonder if the Other Side is like sitting behind tinted glass ... no matter how much you wave to someone ... they can't see you. By Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee.






Note by this Author:

Yesterday this really happened ... our friend never saw me smiling, waving to him through the tinted glass.  This incident gave me much to think about ... I wondered if Tommy ever stood, smiled, reached out to hug me ... and I never saw him ... on the other side?

True poem/photos written, owned by Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee.

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

I Never Take Anything For Granted ...


By Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee



 Kissy Fairchild
 Camie Leigh (Precious Camie)
Skip




The surest way to lose something is to think you'll always have it ... never take anything for granted. By Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee






Skip asked me, "do you have anything to be thankful for?"  I said of course I do.

I have you and our two Pups ... you are my whole world I told him.  What are you thankful for?  "I'm thankful for the very things you are," he said.

We are our world ... in this big, old world.  We are all the other has who is closest, loves us most ... cares what we think, feel.  This is what Thanksgiving means to us ... thankful for what means most in the world ... love, family, ... Pups... friends.

We never take anything for granted because one can be here today ... gone tomorrow.  When I lost my son it brought home to me that if he can be gone forever ... anyone can be.

I am fortunate, grateful for my world made up of Skip, The Pups and you ... my Friends.  No, I never-ever take anything for granted.



Note by this Author:

Tonight Skip asked me out of the blue what I was thankful for.  These are my thoughts on how I really feel.

Photos/story owned,written by Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee.

I Never Take Anything For Granted ...


By Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee



 Kissy Fairchild
 Camie Leigh (Precious Camie)
Skip




The surest way to lose something is to think you'll always have it ... never take anything for granted. By Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee






Skip asked me, "do you have anything to be thankful for?"  I said of course I do.

I have you and our two Pups ... you are my whole world I told him.  What are you thankful for?  "I'm thankful for the very things you are," he said.

We are our world ... in this big, old world.  We are all the other has who is closest, loves us most ... cares what we think, feel.  This is what Thanksgiving means to us ... thankful for what means most in the world ... love, family, ... Pups... friends.

We never take anything for granted because one can be here today ... gone tomorrow.  When I lost my son it brought home to me that if he can be gone forever ... anyone can be.

I am fortunate, grateful for my world made up of Skip, The Pups and you ... my Friends.  No, I never-ever take anything for granted.



Note by this Author:

Tonight Skip asked me out of the blue what I was thankful for.  These are my thoughts on how I really feel.

Photos/story owned,written by Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee.
Surviving Grief ... A Grieving Mother
By Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee







Photos of Gloria Faye Brown Bates with her son Tommy when younger.  Tommy was proud of his mother ... his mother was proud of him.








When a mother loses her child ... no one knows the pain unless you are a mother who loses her child. By Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee






The holidays are here once again. Families will be gathering ... mothers, sons, daughters, fathers, brothers, sisters, cousins ... all mine have gone ... I'll never see them again.  Everyone is gone ... it does hurt deeply.

So much happiness to see each other ... I used to know how it felt to have my son come home.  The holidays and my son's birthday, November 20th ... are days I don't dread now ... I think of the happy times when Tommy came home to be with us for a wonderful meal, family time.

I have my most treasured world now ... Skip and The Pups (our two Pups Kissy Fairchild and Camie Leigh).  With my Heart I treasure them.

I'm amazed I have come so far.  Why?  Six years ago my world came to an end.  For over 3 years I didn't know whether I lived ... died.  I wouldn't have cared either way.  This sounds awful ... but, when one gets in that condition you know the ... worst has happened.

The worst being the very moment I answered the phone from a stranger 200 miles away ... at Myrtle Beach, S.C.  The strange thing was the caller ID.  It said ... Tommy.  I was smiling bright, happy as I always did when Tommy called me.  This time wasn't any different.

I was the first person to know that my son, Tommy ... had collapsed on the sand at Myrtle Beach while running, playing with his little 3 year old son.  The stranger had picked up Tommy's cellphone and pressed last call dialed ... it was me.  Can you imagine?

Now ... I'm glad I was the first to know ... because I, his mother was the last person he called and our call was full of laughter, happiness ... and pure relief knowing my son and his family had arrived safely on the holiday weekend to their destination.

I asked the man why he had my son's phone.  He said, "ma'am, I have a man here collapsed on the sand ... he's not breathing".  I heard him but, I didn't hear him.  Maybe my mind just couldn't hear him ... maybe I was trying to will the words to be different ... maybe, maybe, maybe.

My world ... sunshine ... blacked out as soon as I became aware of what the man said.  I never knew when I quit smiling, feeling happy.

6 years later I still look back to 'see' in my mind the years I lost ... because at that moment I was plunged into darkness ... the darkest dark you could imagine.  The most painful pains you could ever imagine.  The darkest of clouds blacked out my sunshine ... I became the living dead.

I've grieved so much in my life ... as each family member died on both sides of my family.  At that time about 19 family members I truly loved were gone.  I had almost died from non-Hodgkins lymphoma ... Skip had almost died from colon cancer ... he also, survived a tractor-trailer wreck in New Mexico and two weeks later ... survived a wreck at home when he was t-boned.

Not only that we survived a house fire ... we got our dogs out ... Skip went back inside to get his billfold ... he got lost trying to get out.  Our neighbor led him out with the sound of his voice.  He got several burns.  We lost everything.  It goes on ... one thing after the other.

Many 'bad' things happened ... we kept coming back from them.  We survived them.  No bitterness ... no 'woe is me and why did this happen to me?'  We didn't have time to roll in self-pity ... we had to pick ourselves up, keep living.

Until ... the evening I quit living.  Oh my body was still there ... it moved, it spoke ... I ... wasn't there.  My mind had soared into the vast darkness of grief ... it couldn't stay ... inside me.  My body wasn't big enough to hold such horrible knowledge that my son, my only child had died.  Thank God for darkness ... thank God for somehow giving me an escape to where I stayed for over 3 years.

At this moment I stop ... look back.  I can't 'see me' then.  I can remember only bits here, there.  How did I take my shower, dress, talk, walk, wash clothes ... clean house, etc?  How did I?  Isn't it strange what our bodies can do while our minds ... are trying to survive a trauma?  I've been in shock many, many times in my life.  You would think I'd be a pro at being shocked ... each time is new, different.  One never gets used to being told someone they love has died ... the pain is so great I can't describe it.

Even being in shock I never asked for pity, I never shared my grief with people around me ... only shared it in my written words as I sat in my darkness ... with all my friends, people online.  I did write, publish a 738 page book of pure grief ... I can't even remember doing it.

I Cry For Tommy is the name of my book.  One can only get it on Amazon ... at Amazon.com/mrs-GloriaFayeBrownBates/e/BOOBNKPW72.  I am not trying to sell my book ... sometimes someone ask where can they get a copy.

Of course it didn't become a best seller but ... that wasn't the purpose of that book.  It saved my life.  Writing it gave me a place to go to ... to put all my grief in one place.  A place to cry ... talk.  A safe darkness where no one had to see, talk to me ... a place I could be alone.  A place where I kept trying to find Tommy ... over time learn to cope with his death ... learn to accept it.

I meant to make sure my son would never be forgotten.  He won't be forgotten because every book someone reads will remember him ... and when I make golden dragonflys ... leave them in public for someone to find ... Tommy will be remembered.  My son was most special to me ... and I will take my last breath remembering him ... he was a part of me, my body when he came into this world.  How can I let his memory be forgotten?

I haven't written for the past year ... Skip became very ill and almost died 3 times.  January to June were critical months.  He recovered and is doing fine.  Now I find myself wanting to write again.

I will write the colors of my life ... and as promised from the time I began this blog ... I will write about grief.  I know it best ... I'll write about pain.  These things I know best in life ... when I write about them you will see that I don't want anyone's pity.  Why?  Because from the time I was a little girl ... all the 'bad' things that happened to me began to strengthen me for all the 'bad' things that I've survived in this life ... I am very strong for it.  I'm like the Redwood tree ... I have weathered many, many storms ... I'm scarred but, I'm still standing.

Also ... I deal with things in the most positive way possible even when it appears that I'm not.  I have to ... that's me ... it's the only way I can keep the sun shining inside ... I need all the wonderful, beautiful light possible to keep the darkness of grief away.  Why?  Because the pain never goes away ... it's always just beneath the surface waiting ... waiting like a fish to be pulled out of the water.  The good thing now is that I can be alright ... I can get past it because I have to.  I can't let myself dwell in it very long ... I might get lost in that darkness again, not find my way out.

My son, only child is gone ... I am still here.  I will live until I die loving, remembering the little baby I had 47 years ago.  If living ... he'd be an 'old' baby now ... I would surely tell him that because in my mind I can hear his laughter at me saying such a thing.  :)  He always teased me that I never could remember how old he was!




Note by this Author:

I am beginning to write again.  It felt good to write these words ... write about Tommy ... write about grief, pain.  Writing heals as I write ... I've missed it very much this past year.  I will keep my promise to write about grief exactly the way it feels.  For all the readers who didn't know that ... know that I don't write about it to gain sympathy.  I don't need that at all.  I write so others can know, understand without going through it.  Also, any mother who has lost her child will know someone is ... there.

Photos, story owned ... written by Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee.

Sunday, November 20, 2016

How Did I Become Big Enough?

How Did I Become Big Enough?
By Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee








I felt hot tears in my eyes
I remembered why
Today is my son's birthday
I'll never see him again

He's gone now, I've not forgotten him
I live with pure grief
Every day of my life
I stay quiet, I don't talk about him

Once the knowledge he was gone
Was too big for me
How did I become ... big enough
To live, hold such knowledge inside me?