Coal & Tinsel Lining

The thing about growing older is that we tend to spend more & more holidays with fewer & fewer of our loved ones.  This year, two close friends of mine lost their super cool fathers.  A situation with which I am intimate.  The circumstances for the three of us were all different yet the same.  The end result unchanging.

Then, an act of God happened here in north Texas; Icemageddon 2013.  We were iced in for 4 solid days – sorry for the pun.   Some had to venture out for work i.e. the postal workers; others with cabin fever escaped only to find they should have stayed home.

Within a 2 mile radius, lives my mother, one of her long time widow friends & one of my friend’s recently widowed mother.  She had started her new, unrequested life exactly one week ago, and now she was frozen in her home alone.

All three women knew one another.  The latter two had been neighbors when their children were growing all those years ago.  My mother and the newer widow had spent countless hours on “Drill Team Mother” duty. But the neighbor had moved & all of us children had grown. Distance grew.

Children had always been their connection to one another.  But that was in the past.  Now, it was their husbands or missing them that connected them.

So during Icemageddon 2013, I happily played limo service to the widow friend & my friend’s mother, fetching them from their homes to bring them to my mother’s to “escape cabin fever”.  We told them to plan on a Christmas movie, wear their comfy clothes & they would share kitchen duty to make a light, early supper.

Each arrived with yummy treats over & above what had been requested.  One brought her furry slippers.  As soon as I picked up my friend’s mother, the talking marathon ensued & didn’t stop until the last drop off was made late that night.

The movie never happened….too much sharing to be interrupted.  I melted into the background, popping in only to refill coffee or suggest they start supper.  I was getting hungry & they are all amazing cooks!  I heard familiar stories of childhood, stories about my friend I didn’t know but most importantly stories about husbands loved & how to stay sane as a widow.  Life lessons. Lessons that can change a life experience that feels like coal—cold, heavy & all encompassing—into a new life experience that feels more like tinsel or wearing your favorite bling.

To wrap it up in a pretty, organized little gift, it was a day that lifted the spirits of three very strong women who spend each Holiday season sad inside but moving forward in life by helping each other remember love that isn’t lost but still lives on in memories shared.  And that might be the real act of God in the Icemageddon of 2103.

I’m here to help you by disclosing my knowledge of how to organize & be prepared for any situation.  I will show you tips & tricks through posts on the Styled & Organized Living Facebook page, @StyledOrganized on Twitter & the Styled & Organized Living Pinterest page.  Some posts will be simple tools while others will be ideas to consider.   But all will show you how to gain a little more control over your life through organization because Life is Better Organized!