My Pivotal Point

I was having a discussion with a very good friend the other day. I may have written about Marla before, but just in case...Marla lost her husband a few months ago to a long, lengthy illness. I would like to think (and I really do know cause she's told me so) that I was just more than a meal prepared and dropped off at her home. Or, that I was more than an obligatory phone call asking how she was doing. I tried to have some type of contact, whether large or small with her every day, especially near the end of her husband's life. I tried not to infringe too much when her family from out-of-state arrived since I felt it was their time to be together. She was my first visiting teacher from the church when I moved to Wyoming and we both feel quite certain that it was destined that we were to meet.

Marla is a very ("how shall I say this"?) vain person when it comes to her looks. By vain I do not mean arrogant or haughty - she just likes to look good. Under normal circumstances when venturing amongst the human population, Marla's hair is perfectly coiffed and her makeup is impeccable and dressed as though she was going to meet the prophet himself - far from myself. I know that we are dear friends and that she trusts me because I am among the few humans that probably has seen her nekkid face. I've even seen her running around in her jammies and robe and bare footed. We trade food back and forth on a regular basis - many of those times we call them "stop and drop" because we are in a hurry and just don't have time to chat. Marla is who Nikki will be like when she grows up having raised her children, loved her husband dearly, has an unbreakable testimony and is fearless in what she says and believes. I'm sure I've mentioned that to both of them for I believe with all my heart that is true.

But I stray from my noting of a discussion Marla and I had the other day. She is very much aware of the adjustment I've gone through as a caregiver in the last few months as she experienced many of the same things herself during the passing of her beloved. We came to a point in our chattiness of discussing pivotal points in our lives more particularly a pivotal point with our husbands. She related to me when and how she can remember the "last" really good day she had with her husband when things were "normal". It is burned in her her memory. She went on to say that how would she and her husband have ever known that that was the last of the good days before the bad days set in?

As she came to the end of her reminiscing about her pivotal point, it became very clear to me what mine was and is and as long as I live I will never forget it. Mine was July 24, 2010. That's the exact day that Joe and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary. That's the day we went white water rafting down the Wind River Canyon. (Blog entitled "White Water Rafting Trip - 7/24/10). It was a day that we had planned for almost a year and it finally arrived. What a wonderful day we had. Not a care in the world. It was beautiful weather in a beautiful place - it was all picture perfect. Afterwards we took our totally drenched selves to the state park for a picnic and sightseeing looking for buffalo. The day could not have been anymore perfect.

I remember we went to church the next day, Joe took an afternoon walk around the block and life was pretty darn great. Then the next morning life changed suddenly and nothing has ever been the same since Joe had his heart attack. How would Joe and I have known that those were the "good ole days"? Would we have changed anything differently? All I know is that I'm so grateful for the memories we've made together.