Saturday, January 09, 2021

The Grief Limbo Continues

I feel like I've been to war and back since my beloved 94 years old grandmother Baba who died Nov 5th. I have adulted more in the last 2 months than my entire life!
- Less than a week after Baba died got both an inner and outer ear infection on the same ear I wear my hearing aid! Which made me feel lonely among my hearing uncles and aunt
-Sorted through 90 plus years worth of things by donation, give to family, friends or neighbors and that was heart wrenching to slowly disassembled Baba's home
-took care of the cremation services and picked up Baba's ashes
-I wrote with my uncle's feedback and paid for her obituary
- I bought 3 plots for Baba, my Mom (who died 3 years ago)
- I put a deposit down to have Baba's and Mom's ashes laid to rest and started a 3 years interest free payment plan for my ashes when the time comes
- finished teaching, gave final exams and did end of the semester course grades for 100 students a few days before Xmas
- got the paperwork for Baba's estate lawyer and finally met with her on Dec 30th
- dealt with Baba's online financial accounts for the estate lawyer
-gathered all the photos, mementos, journals, important family documents,  letters and my 2 uncles and I spent 6 hours wading through it all! I then carefully pack up what we decided to keep for safeguarding
- packed up everything I wanted to keep and hired movers to move from PA about 90% of Baba's furniture which is much nicer than anything I've accumulated in the 16 years in NYC
-dealt with the movers 5 hours last Tuesday January 5th and again yesterday January 8th for 3 hours which meant I only had an air mattress, a camping chair to use while waiting for my things to be delivered. All the old furniture was removed because I was told it would be the same day move and it wasn't!
Now I just need to unpack and I'm struggling to stay motivated, I am still very bereft! I have been eating my feelings ugh which sucks cuz I lost 16 lbs right before Baba died and now I don't know if I've gained it all back or not?
The worst part of it all is I feel so alone and anchoredless! I was Baba's caregiver for many years. I am an only child, never married, no kids, don't know my father or that side of the family. I have my 2 uncles and 1 aunt and 1 cousin far away! And none of them live nearby but I will try to continue to visit monthly. Difficult with COVID-19 rising!
I want to stress that my one uncle and aunt went above and beyond the call of duty and without them I would not have finished this in a somewhat timely manner. And my other uncle helped some too but I think it was too hard for him to be active in it all.
Before Baba died and we knew it would be soon, she said she was so sorry to have to leave me all alone. And that's how I feel, alone even with my cats, friends, 2 different guys in my life I still feel alone. This post isn't to garner attention and I know after enough time goes by, it won't hurt so much. But right now it hurts and it waxes and wanes. I can function but I have no joy. 

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