Connected In Ways We Never Dreamed Would Happen

I met Mama T about 15 years ago.  I had just joined Mocha Moms.  KingMan was 8-months old and Mama T was the mother of three boys.  Our worlds intertwined over the years and we became like sisters, complete with fall-outs and make-ups.  KingMan (my oldest son) and The Prince (Mama T's youngest son) became like brothers.  Ironically, they were both born on the same special day, February 3rd.

KingMan and The Prince celebrating their 15th and 18th birthday together - what a journey!

We connected deeply as busy bee mamas, heading up organizations, volunteering for events and always on the go.  We planned our children's birthdays together and even vacationed together.  We joked about how different our husbands were - mine was type A and her husband took his own sweet time for everything.  When my husband suffered a stroke in 2008, Mama T's husband became one of his health care aids.  Now both of them had to learn something about moving fast and moving slow.  Our families became even closer.  I saw her husband daily as he came to our home to assist my husband.  Vacationing together was now a necessity so that my husband would be able to enjoy time with his family and have a health care aid available.  We were doing our best to make it work.  Then in 2013 tragedy struck.  My husband passed away suddenly right before Christmas.  It was a shock to us all.  We had plans to play Monopoly Millionaire on the day we lost him.  It felt like life interrupted.  Fast forward one year later and the same thing happened to my dear friend.  In the midst of planning for her husband's birthday dinner she gets a call that he has collapsed and is unresponsive.  This is a tough one for me, but I've been there, so I am walking with Mama T on this journey.  Today here we are with all these connections--homeschooling widow is not a connection we wanted, for sure. In the same way the homeschooling community rallied around me, they rallied around Mama T.  We both surely would have fallen a part were it not for community.  Now we talk about feeling "uncovered," and "naked" without the energy of our spouses.  But we must go on.  It is my prayer that we will continue to find strength in each other and that our sons will be a support to one another.  We must remember, we are not alone.

Baba ... Rest in Peace