OK ... I have been thinking of sharing this for almost a year now ... so here goes. As many of you know, I lost my precious 90 year old Mother on July 18, last year [also my Toto's birthday]. The night of the visitation at the funeral home, we had not even considered taking Toto.
[Since I was in charge of my Mother's affairs, we had stopped by the FH with Toto early that afternoon ... it was extremely hot and the personnel had greeted her with open arms. My Mother adored Toto and Toto loved her Grammy so I took her by to see her ... didn't really expect a reaction from Toto. I was telling her Grammy went to live with Granddaddy & Jesus, etc. She looked down at my Mother, quickly turned and buried her little face in my neck and started whimpering! I was totally shocked!]As Patrick and I were settling Toto in her X-pen to attend the 6PM "family" viewing, there was a sudden storm with thunder, lightening, etc. and I could barely rip her off me she was so frightened. I just turned to Patrick and said "Mother would be furious with me if I left Toto home alone and so scared of this storm" ... I, quite frankly, didn't care
who didn't like it! Anyone that I
might trust to keep her would be at the FH and our Dr. Lucy, who always wants to keep her, was 45 minutes away ... I just scooped her up, grabbed a little blankie and took her with me. She is almost like an accessory on me anyway and anyone that mattered wouldn't think a thing about it ... and they didn't! The few family members who barely spoke to me anyway and showed disdain for Toto does it all the time .... the only one who truly mattered was my Mother and I knew I was doing exactly what she would have wanted me to do.
The next day when her Pastor met me at the church, the first words he said to me was "Where's Toto?" ... he loves her too and sees her often.
I suppose it depends on the circumstances and the people involved as to whether you take Susanah with you ... I personally wouldn't think anything of it. I didn't spend that much time in the room with my Mother ... it was filled with bitter, guilt ridden people who spent very little time with her the last few years when she needed them most. I, on the other hand, spent as much time as I possibly could and tried to make excuses for the ones who didn't. I have no remorse and wouldn't change anything I did.
Sorry this is so long!
