Where has time gone?
2019 seems eternal ago. That was before the Coronavirus pandemic of 2020.
Our lives have changed significantly.
When the pandemic put us in a lockdown in March 2020, school work became virtual. Work also became virtual. This happened on for a few months, until July. Papa was laid off work. Then in August, Mama was laid off work. We both enjoyed a month shared of unemployment, and picked up a bunch of business ideas. Real estate, photography, affiliate marketing. But Mama had to find work and I did, and I'm still there. Papa also found work a year later, in November 2021. School reopened in Fall 2021.
We have added 2 babies to our family: Frodo and Pippin. Both were adopted as kittens through the Ohlone Humane Society in December 2020. They have brought so much love and joy to the house.
The saddest news fell on our family when Grandpa Rey passed away on December 11, 2021. He had been hospitalized for a month because of leg pain. We did not know that this would be his final stage of life. He was in the hospital for 2 weeks, then to a rehab home for a week. He was released to go home the day before Thanksgiving, so we spent the holiday at Templeton. Mama slept the night there to help out.
We visited again before we went to Aubrey's birthday dinner on December 3. Grandpa couldn't join us so we stopped by the house, and I asked him what he wanted to eat that we will order for him. He picked out shrimp scampi flatbread (from Dave and Busters). He said he was getting tired of eating the same stuff, but he couldn't eat anything too salty. We said our goodbyes and went off, leaving behind Grandma and Grandpa :(
A week later was Gerard's first band performance and we were hoping to invite everyone. But grandma and grandpa couldn't make it again. After the performance, we went to Hillsdale mall to go ice skating and get Santa pics. As we got there, we were hungry of course. So we signed up to wait at the Cheesecake factory. While waiting, we waited in line to get Santa pics. But we never got the pics, because we got called to Cheesecake. We ate and had a good time. After, I didn't feel like we had time to go ice skating anymore so I promised Aubrey we will have to go another time. We headed home.
It was that drive home I got a call from grandma, in hysterics, that dad was not breathing :( We went straight to Templeton, he was being resuscitated by EMT. The whole family started to gather, and that was it. We spent the next few hours over his body on the floor praying and crying. His body got picked up late at night. The family started to exchange all the pictures we had of dad/grandpa over the years. I spent the night again at Templeton.
The funeral was on December 21, thank goodness the rain held up. Very hard day. The grandkids all participated in the services.
We will miss grandpa so very much. Whenever I craved for his cooking, he would come through! Whenever the kids wanted to come over, he never said no. Never complained.
Here we are in 2022.
Shortly after grandpa's 40th day, mama got covid. I'm in recovery right now. My symptoms were not the worse, but I slept through most of it. I had muscle aches, sore throat, congestion, headache and nausea.
I've been having dreams with grandpa in it. We are planning to go to Canada this summer, and we need to renew your passports. What a process.
Pardon for this messy structure of writing. I am just pouring it all out.
