GIVING!

I grew up with parents who were centered on themselves. They did take care of our needs as far as shelter, food and clothing (7 kids) went. I only remember a handful of times where we actually sat down and just talked together. My mom worked over 50 hours a week as a waitress and my dad was collecting disability (I can write more about my parents another time)! When I first met my husband’s parents, I could not believe how they would sit down with us every time we visited to just talk. My mother in law would always ask me if I was hungry and want to make me a snack. If my husband was out-of-town, I would go over to their house to spend time with them. Very often my mother in law would make lunch, dinner or a snack for me while my father in law and I would sit at the kitchen table and just talk.  I love sports and so did my father in law so we had a lot to talk about. My husband was a high school basketball coach and my father in law would come to my house and pick me up to go to every game. He would always pay for the gas. My mother in law always packed us dinner to eat on the way! When my daughter played AAU basketball for a team out of New Hampshire my father in law would drive us down to every practice during the weekend. She had practice Saturday and Sunday so we had to stay over in a hotel Saturday night. We did not want to drive 3 and 1/2 hours each way on both days. My father in law would pay the hotel cost too! Once my daughter’s team started traveling throughout the country, my father in law would research where the games were going to be, book the hotel room, book the flights if needed and pay for everything. During my daughter’s second year playing for that team my father in law became sick towards the end of the summer. He could not travel anymore. He was admitted in the hospital for Pneumonia and never recovered from it. My daughter knew he was sick but not how sick he really was. When she went on her last trip of the summer, I sent her with another player’s parent so I could stay at the hospital with my father in law. That was one of the hardest things I have ever gone through because I saw him decline so quickly. He passed away while she was away. I decided not to tell her over the phone while she was away. When she got home, my husband and I told her about her grandfather. She fell to the floor and just cried. It was very emotional for all. My father in law was one special man! He made a HUGE difference in my life and my children’s! My mother in law moved in with us a year after he passed. She has lived with us 11 years! All the things they both have done with us will be forever in our hearts! They are/were the most GIVING people I have ever met!