Post Labor Day memories

Hard to believe that Labor Day has come and gone.

Same can be said of my cousin Kristie. Kristie took matters into her own hands and decided on August 22 to leave this world. She was in such a state that she never told a soul (that the family is aware of) WHY. So sad was this situation that even her daddy's pastor, who held the memorial service commented that most of the time in times as this, people look to the clergy to make sense of it all. However, he was in the same boat as the rest of us. Kristie simply kept all her secrets with her and as many said "Only God knows why" she took her life. Her Daddy made a very touching eulogy to his daughter. He commented that he was there when she was born and also when she drew her last breath. Made me think of the email that commented on the dash between the birth/death dates on tombstones. Her hubby Al also shared his feelings of great loss. Oh why do people do things like this? Can't they see beyond their hurts and pains and get a glimpse of what agony their leaving will do to those that love them so? I don't think so or else we would seldom have incidents like this.

During this time of great suffering for my family, my beloved hubby diligently kept working on our house. Even had some relates that wanted to see the progress and I brought them by after the memorial service. What I wasn't aware of was, DH and his buddy had very carefully removed the old floor of the "old porch/lean-to" and there was a decent section of new floor that was also using the old section for support. Needless to say, if you have 6 people stand in an area that is not very well supported, it WILL collapse! Thank the Lord it only went down perhaps a foot at most. I will forever be a fan of "joist hangers" since they did their job and kept all of us from becoming seriously injured. Loved the comment from my cousin Rosemarie..."now I know what it feels to be in a earthquake"...ok...but I still think an earthquake would be several times worse! To each their own!

So my DH spent the biggest part of the rest of the weekend getting that poor little floor back into place. Now you could race elephants on it and it would hold (j/k...truely, don't try this...EVER!)

On an amusing note, my beloved friend Donna has been coming with her hubby to help us and she decided this weekend that she was curious as to what all was "upstairs". Mind you we don't have anyway to get upstairs except via a ladder which the guys had been using all day on Monday. They'd been carefully removing the old metal roof off the old house and went up and down effortlessly so Donna decided the time had come for her to see what was up there. She first approached her husband to help her and was turned down (he knew better) then turned to MY husband (who is a sucker to any female asking for his help) and ended up helping her get up there...then promptly split to go where his buddy was...good job dear!!! Poor Donna about had a panic attack because she didn't realize that there aren't any "walls" built, it's only open wall studs and from her eye level to where I was down below...a good 15+ feet...YIKES!!! She then settles down and proclaims "I cannot come down on my own" So I did the only thing a good friend who is even more terrified of heights than she is could do. I tossed a broom, dustpan and roll of heavy duty trash bags and hollered "well since you can't come down, can you tidy things up there some?" What would you do? I somehow don't believe she was impressed, but she didn't want to just sit up there so off she went about sweeping up sawdust and wood chunks and then when she had a trash bag full, proceed to drop the darn thing down to me to deal with...lol I just love her to pieces...she's a good egg! Oh and eventually my poor hubby did come over and help her get started back down to the main level.

Yep this Labor Day went by rather quickly...