Weirdness

Husband's aunt died Thursday morning. We got a call on Wed. that she had a couple of days left at most, so he got the last flight out of Hawaii that night to try to get to see her in time. She died before he got there, but he's with his family and that is really important to him. Today is the viewing and tomorrow is the funeral. She was a wonderful person and the big caregiver of the family.

It is very weird not to be there with him. I stayed here because us both going would be expensive enough that going home at Christmas would be really, really difficult. And I wanted us to be there at Christmas. The first Christmas after my dad died was really hard, and I wanted us to all be together at Christmas because I know how hard it's going to be. Texts and phone calls are just not the same as hugs.

This is only the third time Husband and I have been apart in almost 14 years of marriage (next month is our 14th anniversary). The last two times, he stayed home and I went to conferences. It was harder on him because, being the one traveling, I was busy all the time and had conference buddies. Being home means you notice all of the little moments in the day when you would usually be with your partner. It's lonelier than I expected, and hard to sleep. And I'm finding it hard to work. I'm sad about his aunt and missing him. But it's just for a week.

But this cheered me up a bit this morning: